I agree with you Watford. I was just responding to your line that those who attend away games outside of London should have first dibs. No system is perfect. The club need to have dialogue with the fans and come up with a system that is fair to all, not just London based fans.
The club have records. They should use them. It's obvious that many more people would be keen on watching Premier League football and more STs would be sold. But those of us who have stuck with the club through thick and thin should not be shafted by that situation. This doesn't require rocket science - just a decent database serach. Uber respect to finglasqpr BTW.
But then are you are asking the club to work out the distance each individual fan covers to each game home and away and distribute different numbers of points to each person based on this? It's just not feasible. I sympathise with your point of view and, to a lesser extent, travelling from Birmingham for the majority of the season (despite my username) I'm in a similar boat albeit certain away games are easier for me than most which is a positive. I really respect your contribution to the club and I'd be hurting too if I couldn't get an Arsenal ticket (I couldn't get a Fulham one through the club) but I don't think it's reasonable to expect them to devise a super complex system of ticket allocation because then you'd have to consider every single factor that could be argued to determine loyalty which can't really be done.
Can someone please explain to me exactly how the loyalty points system works? I am a new season ticket holder this season (although I have been one in years gone by) and I bought the up-grade, which, as I understood it, enabled me to get an extra ticket for home games. How does that up-grade affect away games, if at all?
Whats supercomplex? The criteria used should be; 1. Renewing season ticket holder = extra points 2. Number of years a season ticket holder = extra points 3. distance travelled to home and away games = extra points 4. away games attended = extra points 5. club member = extra points The current system only rewards people who (a). paid £35 extra for the upgrade and (b) fans who are renewing or new season ticket holders and (c). points are rewarded for attendance at away game on a scale of how far away from London the away game is.
I don't know the exact numbers Col but you got loyalty points for becoming a new season ticket holder this season. Next year you will get more points for being a season ticket renewal. You also got extra loyalty points for the £35 superhoop upgrade. My understanding of the upgrade was that you would then be entitled to tickets for all away games. I could be wrong but that is my understanding of it.
But then surely that punishes those who live near the ground which is if anything more unfair. When I lived abroad for some of last season I came back for a few games and would have liked to go to the Leeds game but couldn't get a ticket. I just think it wouldn't work to allocate more points to those who have an address further from Loftus Road and, if that were one of the criteria for ticket allocation, why not make it more complex by considering different incomes, ages, physical ability etc- is a bloke going home and away on a bus driver's salary more loyal than his brother who goes home and away on a doctor's salary? Is a 70 year-old who struggles to get up the steps to his seat making more of a commitment than his grandson who could jog to the game if he fancied? If someone has a car, are they making less of a commitment than those who have no other means of getting to a game than the bus? There are just too many factors to consider if you want to introduce one of them. All the club has to go on is purchasing of tickets.
Ok...just spoken to the club and I now know what points I have and how they are worked out: For becoming a new season ticket holder - 100 For joining early - 20 For buying the £35 up-grade - 30 Total - 150 points. Wish I'd bothered to find that out sooner, as I wanted to go to Arsenal but thought that I had to wait till Saturday to apply!! Never mind...at least I know now!
Cheers gooner. Don't suppose just anyone can phone the club direct and get a couple of seats can they?
Nobody's talking about age, disability, car ownership etc etc. I am not suggesting such criteria should be used. What I am saying is awarding extra points for away games on a scale based on how far away from London (the away game only), is not right. As you pointed out, it is also not fair that QPR fans based up North easily rack up loyalty points for away games near them while people who have travelled from London get the same points even though they have travelled much further and at greater expense. I am also saying if you use distance travelled to away games as a means of measuring fans loyalty, you should also use the same measure for home games and this would give a greater reflection of the fan's overall loyalty in addition to the other criteria that I have suggested.
With that effort, not only do you deserve an Arsenal ticket, finglas, it should be an honorary seat in the dugout with Neil and Keith...
But naturally if you're getting more points than you maybe deserve for some aways due to living up north you're travelling further for home games and thus you're rewarded by getting more points than you ought to for away games. I appreciate that doesn't help you given you are so far away for every game (except Liverpool, Everton and maybe some others). Those who don't have season tickets aren't able to get away tickets at all for these sorts of games so the northern season ticket holders are, along with yourself, the most loyal, but that shouldn't mean that those of us who live nearer the ground should be put below you in the pecking order. You can't introduce one quantitative factor to suit your situation without considereing the others. It's the club's job to sell tickets to those who have been to the most games/least glamorous games. Distance travelled to Loftus Rd ought not to be a criteria in allocating away tickets as you then open up all these other cans of worms. A fan living in Cardiff has a reasonably easy drive down the M4, albeit a long one, while a fan in Stratford has a short but arduous journey through London. These probably aren't the best examples but if you're getting a Ryanair flight to Luton and short train to London (for the sake of argument- you might swim to games for all I know) then you're going a further distance than the guy who has driven from East Anglia but one could say he's put more effort into getting there. Basically, having a system that benefits the majority of the fanbase the most seems to me to be the best way to go about it. If you're a season-ticket holder from Ealing, Dublin or Timbuktu you can get tickets for Arsenal, Chelsea etc. if you go to Wigan, Everton etc.
Unless they go on general sale the answer is no. I'll check how sales are going and let you know on the chances of a general sale
Thanks Goldhawk. I think they would kick me out after a few minutes when they hear me shouting and roaring. I just think the current system is wrong. You get rewarded based on whether you paid £35 extra (that to me is totally wrong) or you travelled to away games. Yet, other fans spend thousands getting to home games but are not entitled to an Arsenal ticket, for example.
