I do have sympathy for people who live a long way away and would like to watch Saints when they turn up on their doorstep, but ST holders have always been favoured. I had a ST once and got priority for the FA Cup Final in Cardiff, but now I don't. Have no problem with that. I went to early rounds of JPT and got priority for Wembley. Would get no priority now. What most are forgetting is that the club want to be fair and/or encourage attendance, but they can't consider every possibility. The problem is the reduced number of tickets at other grounds...in the lower leagues, other teams were glad when Southampton came to town...big pay day. We will never all be happy.
As usual Fran you explain the situation accurately. My biggest gripe in the Premier League, as you say here and others the same, is not how our club allocates away tickets so much but the meagre away allocation at these mostly larger grounds - and yet we appear to give visiting supporters at least 3000 tickets & sometimes more in our relatively small ground. Our away allocation at the massive Old Trafford was so small in comparison - this season this fixture was a mid week game but if it was on a w/e Saints could have taken double the allocation to OT. We usually have quite large away support for the size of the club so this issue does affect us more than some other clubs. I also loved those Lg1 seasons where we could get loads of tickets and had some great away days - even after losing 3-1 at Carlisle ( any one remember poor old Dan Hardings fantastic og ! ) we had the bestest night out there that Sat night before a groggy drive home on Sun afternoon !! Just love away trips like that - but in the Prem it is seldom like that although Liverpool is always a special city.
It is another good reason to praise the away supporters, it starts with a battle to get a ticket, the hastle of transport to and from, yet they still get there and every time, (despite the negative and misguided comments from some of the blue few), they always give 100%, win or lose, you cannot ask for more, other than better treatment in the acquisition of the tickets in the first place. 12th man, we salute you.
You can please all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time etc. etc. etc. I have my tickets for the Swansea game and I have no complaints about the ticket allocation. I do wish they would get more windows open at the ticket office though when demand is high. I didn't want to go out in the bitter cold so I sent the very lovely Mrs Godders for our tickets and she had to wait in a queue for over half an hour. When she came home she was frozen.
I'm not asking for a ticket to the FA cup final though, of course there will be enormous demand for that. I just don't think it's unreasonable that fans living away from Southampton should, for example, be able to nominate one or two away games that they then get, not priority, but parity, with season ticket holders. I can see not everyone is going to agree, but the attitude shown by some of "I have missed out before, so you should too" is disappointing.
Also another thing why does the club never tell us the allocations we get anymore? And anyone of any idea how many Swansea tickets we got allocated?
I hope that's not aimed at me and if it is, it's a little silly. My point is a million miles from that. My point is simply that the club can't win here and as Godders says, they can't please all the people all the time. My attitude certainly not as you mention above, I'm just trying to be realistic.
Well, I'm paraphrasing. Apologies if I have misinterpreted but that's certainly how I read your (and Fran's) comments.
That's ok. Ill just reiterate what i meant as I certainly didn't mean to say that I had to miss out in the past, so others should now. I'm trying to see it from the club's point of view as a business. It is a tough call for them.
I think this might just be the thread!!! I live in Spain and am coming over the weekend of the Spurs game to see my Australian uncle who'll be visiting from the UK. Although I'll be staying in Beastleigh I thought l could pop up to London for the day for the game ( my only one this season!!). But after seeing the rules l think l've got absolutely no chance of a ticket if l wait until Monday week when they're on general sale. Can any season ticket holders that can't make the game want to help me with a couple of tikets??? Please??
Right. You and CraigSFC remember this and next season we'll get fortnightly stickied thread underway. OK..?
TSS I have offered several people tickets for games I can't go to away via this forum. Each time, I have met them and exchanged tickets for cash without any problem. I even met one who came to the hotel I was staying in, in london two days before the west ham game. It can work no problem. A stickied shared travel thread would be good.
I am a season ticket holder and have been to a number of away games. Does any one know if under the current scheme points for those away games are carried over to next year or does it start afresh for 2013/14 season?