Well the Port Vale ticket arguments have already started

clay said:
Bit harsh! Although to be fair my first class maths degree didn't cover priority points...

Agree that current away prices can be obscene (and I'm partly avoiding the Bristol game on a point of principal over their price gouging) but we've had plenty of sub-£30 Championship games which either sold out slowly or not at all.

I'm really not. The "basic maths" shows us that there's around 750-1000 who go to pretty much every game, a few thousand more who I'd call "regulars" but do maybe 7-12 a season, and then thousands more who do just one or two.

And me! I do agree that there should be something that recognises people for whom a home game isn't just a quick walk across town, but I'm yet to hear any workable suggestion for how we'd do that.

Reallllllllly? Our fans will be desperate to go to Anfield and Old Trafford instead of the Select Car Leasing Stadium because it'll be capped at £30 and there are slightly fewer away games in a PL season? We both know you don't really believe that.
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The away prices was more to show the point that demand won't drop because of prices. They will always be constant so there won't be issues like Bristol where fans are put off by prices.

The point about Anfield or Utd isn't the point I'm making. Even if we were in the championship, if you took away midweek games and reduced the number to 19 then demand would be higher for every game. Midweek point especially because travelling on a weekday evening after work is prohibitive for a lot of people. Obviously demand for Anfield and Old Trafford will be higher but that is on top of the increased demand that will be down to logistics. Just the location of the teams in the league we are in changes things. I live in the NW and this season we swapped Burnley, Sheffield Utd (& Luton) to the PL and Wigan, Blackpool & Reading to L1 and replaced them with Southampton, Leicester, Leeds, Ipswich, Plymouth and Sheff Wed. That's a big hit to demand for tickets for me because I've lost 3 local grounds and swapped them for grounds out of my reach (location for most but even on price for Leeds and Sheff Wed).

Apologies for questioning your maths skills. It's really more about thinking about the numbers than being able to do maths. As above, demand is determined by more factors than just opposition.
 
Well I’m going to be a right selfish bar steward with this comment, but as we are going to play a League cup QF, and I have gone to all the ties from R1 onwards.
I for one will be most unhappy if I was to miss out at Port Vale. So there… nah, nah, na naan nah! grrr 😡
(having my mini hissy fit now - just in case 🤣)
 
Doesn't this just come down to whether you think that passing tickets onto friends or friends of friends is acceptable?

The club tolerate it so unless that changes then most of the arguments are just based on how you use/abuse whatever system is in place.

At the moment even the away ST holders can miss a game and pass on their tickets.

To be transparent, I've rarely got a ticket through any sort of perceived loyalty from the club under my own name other than when we had the Pride membership scheme. When I lived on Teesside I used to 'share' a season ticket in someone else's name who had had it for years and wanted to keep it but rarely could attend. When he could I bought a ticket elsewhere in the ground. I can't think of a single game that I have wanted to go to and not got one because we had a family of season tickets with member who didn't do away games generally.

If I decide I want to go to an away game this season I will definitely use the system in place at the moment where I can help somebody out in return for me helping them out with priority points. If the club change the system so that isn't possible then I don't have a problem with that but with this points system they are tacitly encouraging/condoning that so I'd be daft not to use that. Most of the time it isn't even about getting priority; it's about sitting with my friends.
 
Unravel_Morrison said:
Most of the time it isn't even about getting priority; it's about sitting with my friends.
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Exactly. The priority is an added perk, I just use the system the way I do so that I can enjoy a day out with my mates. That's what matters to me, and until they change the system, as you say, I'd be daft not to continue sharing season tickets and helping family/friends out in getting priority points on their account
 
clay said:
The away season ticket is surely a red herring. Anyone who's got one has - by definition - bought a ticket for every single Boro game for God knows how long, and therefore will have the maximum priority points anyway. Scrapping the away season tickets wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference to ticket allocations.
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Yup but they will save on admin fees the rest pay and saves them the time of going on the website booking
 
Make way (Red Wurzel elbows and nudges his way through lines of Boro fans)....Gold Standard S/T holder coming through!

No league cup games attended for 17 years, but he wants his place at the front for QFs
 
Normanby_Red said:
Exactly. The priority is an added perk, I just use the system the way I do so that I can enjoy a day out with my mates. That's what matters to me, and until they change the system, as you say, I'd be daft not to continue sharing season tickets and helping family/friends out in getting priority points on their account
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You know what, I don’t actually disagree with a much of that. One of the reasons people do “play” the system is to sit with their mates. I totally get that, which is one of the reasons I was against the introduction of the points system. You could have a group going to a game that at scattered across several points bands which just makes it a pain in the backside, especially if any of them are kids as you can’t buy them a seat alone without upgrading it to an adult ticket.

It’s no wonder you turn up to away games and people are in your seats, as people just find a group of seats nobody is currently in so they can sit with their mates. Which then leads to arguments when the person who’s booked those seats with their group turns up and rightfully wants them. Another issue the points system has introduced that I’ve highlighted.

I just find it odd and frustrating that the people who insist it’s fair, insist it’s the best way to sell away tickets, and ensures “those who put the miles in are rewarded” will then condone people circumventing the many problems it’s introduced and people rigging the system in their favour. I suspect because they have mates who cheat the system.

You either want the points system to be fair and transparent for everyone or you might as well not have it. You can’t champion it but because your mates benefit from cheating other Boro fans out of tickets turn a blind eye.

So no I don’t blame you or anyone else who’s using their friends or family’s accounts to get tickets. If I was in your situation I’d do the same. I don’t blame anyone for buying tickets and selling them on for points (I don’t myself). The people I blame are the football club for making it too easy and the small group of vocal people who demanded this system be introduced because they keep trying to kid themselves and others that going on the drink every other weekend around the country following the team they love is some sort of chore and they have a divine right to be rewarded for it with tickets to every single away game.
 
InglebyUTB said:
...they keep trying to kid themselves and others that going on the drink every other weekend...
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A good post, ruined by the obscene insinuation that anyone who goes to more away games than you is just a pjsshead.
 
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fmttmadmin said:
Only a couple of games have not gone to general sale so how is that a closed shop?
If as a season ticket holder you had been to every other game excepting Exeter and Sunderland how many points would you have?
Also, how much money would it have cost you? Both in tickets, trave and time off work?
Lets see how many away games you would need to have attended as a home season card holder to get in the queue for Port Vale. It may not be as many as you think, mid week. December.
Someone on this thread questioned me personally having an away season ticket. But I go to every game. I pay to go to every game. When did you last go to an away game? I know when I last missed an away game (through covid). That will be the same for the other away season ticket holders. They travel to every match.
This system works well for most. Some cheat it Sadly, some would cheat any system. It would be just as easy to do so with your system unless those using tickets were matched up with the season cards. That could be a bit Big Brother for a football game.
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Bobby, I have bigged you up for your personal support many times, but you also know that I have followed our club away from home for decades. I've been to Plough Lane, The Manor Ground, The Dell, Goldstone Ground, Ninian Park, Upton Park, Filbert Street, Elm Park, Victoria Ground, Roker Park, Feethams, Millmoor, Burnden Park, Boothferry Park, Bootham Crescent and their replacements and over 80 others watching our club over the last 50 years of more.
I've had a season ticket with my Dad and then for my Dad and two kids since I was 11.
I've spent an absolute fortune following my club for decades and persuaded my company to put in around a million quid between 1999 and 2010.
I'm no superfan and definitely don't claim to be, but **** me, just because somebody has had the opportunity to go to away games over a two year period, are you seriously telling me that they deserve priority over people who have done more miles and spent more money following Boro than anything they've done in a two year spell?
It is bull****, is easily abused and defended by those who happen to be heavily advantaged by it.

I can easily cope with not getting a ticket and not saying I deserve to go to the away matches I want to now. But just because you've had the time to do two years (I mean wow) should definitely not give you massive advantage either.

The club can't really win in fairness, but I'd far rather ballots than what we have now.
 
ForssAwakens said:
Exactly, therefore removing the away season ticket now makes sense, if they system is changed in future it impacts everyone the same way
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Or open the away season ticket option up to everyone who wants one, not just the current closed shop

It should be open to everybody or nobody
 
InglebyUTB said:
You know what, I don’t actually disagree with a much of that.

I just find it odd and frustrating that the people who insist it’s fair, insist it’s the best way to sell away tickets, and ensures “those who put the miles in are rewarded” will then condone people circumventing the many problems it’s introduced and people rigging the system in their favour. I suspect because they have mates who cheat the system.
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Oh it's not really a fair system, I'm not going to claim it is a fair system. I just use the system in a way that at the moment suits me, and until the club really do anything about it, myself and a number of others will continue to do so.

I do think buying tickets and selling them on for the sake of points is annoying, that is probably the biggest flaw in the system. I've never sold on a ticket in my life, to someone who I don't know. I literally just utilise the fact I have family members with STs to buy myself and my mates tickets to away games, and we've had some absolutely belting days out, so I'd be lying if I was going to stay I plan on stopping anytime soon.

It's up to the club to stamp it out.
 
Aet290204 said:
I wasn’t a season ticket holder in 1997 but I borrowed someone’s ST who didn’t want to/couldn’t go to get a ticket for the Leicester replay at Hillsborough and the Chesterfield game at Old Trafford.

Does that make me a bad person ?
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No, it possibly makes you a jinx, though 🤣
 
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