Sunderland Away Ticket Info

Are you really going to claim that people who money to spend on tickets, travel, food / drink and possibly accommodation for over 30 away games since last August don’t have high disposable incomes?
What is your definition of 'high disposable income' ?
 
The priority system suits anybody that puts in the effort to travel every other week to every away game and start gathering points.

It doesn't suit those that don't travel away all the time and only want to go to the really high demand, big away games.

There's your two options. Put the money, time and effort in and get rewarded with priority... or don't and wait until those that have get first access.

It's open to everyone. Anyone can benefit from this priority point system.
It doesn’t suit us who work away
 
I don’t get why you’d feel sorry for people who have the time and money to travel the length of the country because they miss one game.

They go to these games presumably because they enjoy them, rather than feeling sorry for them I bet many people wish they were in their position.

If I go to see Peter Kay in Cardiff I don’t expect priority when he rocks up in Sunderland. If eat in Nando’s in London I don’t get to jump the queue in Leeds.

I find the idea that people should receive priority utterly bizarre. These people aren’t putting a shed load of extra money into the club as the ticket money goes to the away club.

If they can attend nearly every away game they’re in a privileged position in terms of job, income and available time.

As someone who believes in socialist values I don’t think people with the highest disposable income should be able to plonk themselves at the front of the queue.
It’s not just about the money it’s also the time as well. To do the majority of away games it involves giving up weekends and giving up holidays as well as huge amounts of money.

It’s in no way fair for someone who goes to almost every game to miss out on a ticket for one of the biggest games of the season over someone who just picks and chooses what games they want to attend
 
The priority system suits anybody that puts in the effort to travel every other week to every away game and start gathering points.

It doesn't suit those that don't travel away all the time and only want to go to the really high demand, big away games.

There's your two options. Put the money, time and effort in and get rewarded with priority... or don't and wait until those that have get first access.

It's open to everyone. Anyone can benefit from this priority point system.

The priority system suits people who are rich in free time and money. It also encourages people to buy tickets for games that they don't want to go to and flogging them elsewhere to keep up their points so that they can keep at the top of the pile. It isn't as simple as you make it out to be. No system would be fair or perfect but this one is flawed and rewards a certain group of our fanbase.
 
If I was him I’d be embarrassed to put my name to it, it’s been a mess from pretty much day one.

They initially rewarded people points for travelling on the ra-ra’s, which is ridiculous and works against those who don’t live near Middlesbrough or travel by car/train.

He’s created a system with built in disadvantages for new (younger) fans.

Season’s worth of points:
Gold card - 80
Chairman drink - 75
Regular card - 70

So every time a new season starts, those who’ve bought their season cards after 15/16 season not only don’t get a free pint every game but they’re 2.5 or 5 away games behind the others. Before a ball is kicked.

There’s no way for those supporters to build up their “loyalty” and move through the levels of membership. That’s it. So when the popular games like Sunderland come along, they’ll have had to have clocked up a fair amount of away games in that time just to have a chance. If a popular game is early season they’re probably stuffed.

Until that’s fixed it will always benefit a small number of fans.

There’s no way of checking the points of other people in your network without getting every single individual to log-in. The ticket office have made mistakes with our points but if you don’t get each person to log-in and check before the fixture the points are for, they refuse to do anything about it.

If you have kids they don’t have an account, so you can’t see there’s at all without ringing up the switchboard and sitting on hold.

The whole thing needs looking at again, and I say all this as somebody who’ll very likely get a Sunderland ticket.
Your point about the kids account is wrong. My son has his own account which is linked to mine and where I can see his priority points. Set up in just the same way as mine.
 
The priority point system is a system with flaws. If it is to reward loyalty, I have been a loyal fan for over 30 years and season ticket holder for over 15 years. Due to work commitments and finances I am only able to get to a couple of away games with my kids but this should not mean I am any less loyal that anyone who has the time and money to go to all of the away games. The process is discriminatory to those many in the same position as myself.

My second point is that The process is like where the rich get richer and the poor just stay poor. I know of at least 5 people who have accrued over 200 points purely by giving their away game tickets to others whereby they just claim the points. Only attending 2 or 3 away games themselves but on paper it looks like they have attended every game. If for any away game that doesn't make down to the lower end of the points system then same principle. How do the lower points accrue points if taken up by those above them.

Too many flaws with this to make it seem fair and non discriminatory.

Solution, go back to the old system like every other ticketed event. First come first serve and when sold out, its sold out.
 
The priority point system is a system with flaws. If it is to reward loyalty, I have been a loyal fan for over 30 years and season ticket holder for over 15 years. Due to work commitments and finances I am only able to get to a couple of away games with my kids but this should not mean I am any less loyal that anyone who has the time and money to go to all of the away games. The process is discriminatory to those many in the same position as myself.

My second point is that The process is like where the rich get richer and the poor just stay poor. I know of at least 5 people who have accrued over 200 points purely by giving their away game tickets to others whereby they just claim the points. Only attending 2 or 3 away games themselves but on paper it looks like they have attended every game. If for any away game that doesn't make down to the lower end of the points system then same principle. How do the lower points accrue points if taken up by those above them.

Too many flaws with this to make it seem fair and non discriminatory.

Solution, go back to the old system like every other ticketed event. First come first serve and when sold out, its sold out.
The old system wasn’t as fair as it is now, I understand people will be disappointed to miss out but that’s a part of life.
 
Rob this needs bringing up at the next meeting. If this is how Sunderland are going to treat our allocation then we need to know if MFC are going to respond and only allocate Sunderland fans a similarly small % of the ground capacity the next time we host them. Otherwise we constantly get shafted by then and then roll over and give them loads of tickets.
 
The old system wasn’t as fair as it is now, I understand people will be disappointed to miss out but that’s a part of life.
Please explain how the old system of where everyone with a season ticket had the same equal opportunity of getting away tickets etc irrelevant of points wasnt fair?

What is so fair about having a system that has many flaws benefiting a select few.
 
how the old system of where everyone with a season ticket had the same equal opportunity of getting away tickets etc irrelevant of points wasnt fair
Because it meant fans who didn't go to any previous away games and didn't do the miles had the same chance of a high demand away ticket compared to those who make a huge amount of commitments, travelling up and down the country, following us regardless of who we play.

Fan A - Season card holder and attends 20 away games over 2 years
Fan B - Season card holder and attached 0 away games over 2 years.

Are you seriously suggesting Fan B should have equal chance of a high demand away ticket as Fan A?
 
Please explain how the old system of where everyone with a season ticket had the same equal opportunity of getting away tickets etc irrelevant of points wasnt fair?

What is so fair about having a system that has many flaws benefiting a select few.
It benefits those who actually attend away games, as I’ve said before why is it fair for someone who will only attend the Sunderland game to get a ticket over someone who attends 10 away games? If you want to attend the bigger more sought after games then start attending matches.
 
The old system wasn’t as fair as it is now, I understand people will be disappointed to miss out but that’s a part of life.
My point is "fair" and "loyalty" are hugely subjective.
No system will satisfy everyone and there will always be disappointed punters. I may be one of those this time and I will live with that.

I am confident that many of those with the points on their account are not the same people who have been at the matches they have points for. They become elite card holders because they buy for others on their card.

Even if they have been for a season and a half and do have the points, then I don't see how that makes them better than somebody who has been all over the country over many years and is a long term SC holder. Going this season and last does not make you more loyal than somebody who has been going for many years - home and away.
 
My point is "fair" and "loyalty" are hugely subjective.
No system will satisfy everyone and there will always be disappointed punters. I may be one of those this time and I will live with that.

I am confident that many of those with the points on their account are not the same people who have been at the matches they have points for. They become elite card holders because they buy for others on their card.

Even if they have been for a season and a half and do have the points, then I don't see how that makes them better than somebody who has been all over the country over many years and is a long term SC holder. Going this season and last does not make you more loyal than somebody who has been going for many years - home and away.
I agree that it should be changed from two seasons but it needed to start somewhere and is the fairest way of deciding. It wouldn’t be right that these 1955 tickets get to go to anybody.
 
Rob this needs bringing up at the next meeting. If this is how Sunderland are going to treat our allocation then we need to know if MFC are going to respond and only allocate Sunderland fans a similarly small % of the ground capacity the next time we host them. Otherwise we constantly get shafted by then and then roll over and give them loads of tickets.
Nope. Let them come in their thousands, plow money into MFC and leave in tears on 80 minutes when they're 3-0 down.
 
Rob this needs bringing up at the next meeting. If this is how Sunderland are going to treat our allocation then we need to know if MFC are going to respond and only allocate Sunderland fans a similarly small % of the ground capacity the next time we host them. Otherwise we constantly get shafted by then and then roll over and give them loads of tickets.
MFC have every grounds to do so based on their persistent obscene chanting (and not just a small minority).
 
Nope. Let them come in their thousands, plow money into MFC and leave in tears on 80 minutes when they're 3-0 down.
On this thread people in favour of the current system have identified a benefit to MFC of a large away following - why hand that to Sunderland when they give us such ridiculously small allocations?
 
Please explain how the old system of where everyone with a season ticket had the same equal opportunity of getting away tickets etc irrelevant of points wasnt fair?

What is so fair about having a system that has many flaws benefiting a select few.
Because one person could go to every away game, spending thousands in the process and giving up most of their free time, over another fan who only attended no away games but fancied Sunderland away. The fan who went to every away game could miss out to the fan who attended none. How is that fair?

It’s hardly discriminatory, if you want to go to be guaranteed a ticket then go to every game, if not then you risk missing out
 
Going this season and last does not make you more loyal than somebody who has been going for many years - home and away
I agree with this to an extent.

The fact a loyalty scheme is in place isn't the problem. It was desperately needed and it's a good thing we have one in place.

It's the loyalty scheme system that could be tweeked here or there.

Open up Gold Card status (not just those who have been a SC holder since 1995).
Open up Chairman's drink status (not just those who had a ticket the year we were promoted under Aitor)

The 2 year rolling maybe could be extended? Something else to debate.

But whatever happens, a loyalty scheme needed to be put in place. And we should not remove it now...for games such as Sunderland away with a pathetic allocation
 
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