All applications for season tickets must now have a passport style photo included or have a photo uploaded with online applications. Not at all happy with this. After the increase in season ticket prices this is a further hassle and expense I could well do without. Looks like we will have to leave our seats empty if we can't make a game now too.
I will need to read the smaller print and find out more detail but on the face of the suggestion, I am not happy with the possibility of what it could mean.
The instruction suggests you go to the ticket office to have your photo taken. I am not sure that it necessarily follows that you have to leave your seat vacant if absent. Is it really different to know (I know they have a means of checking id but would they try to enforce it?).
Scally has stated that eventually he wants a card 'ticket' to replace the current book of tickets. This will require the relevant infrastructure in place at the turnstiles before that can happen. For the meanwhile the requirement of a photo to be supplied when applying for season tickets may suggest that the photo / copy will be incorporated into the booklet. Varification will then be possible if required - e.g. to ensure that, if you look over 18 you're not trying to use a youths ticket belonging to your young son etc. Entry into the ground will still require the detachment of the matchday ticket. I doubt very much that this part of the operation will cause any problem if you give your ticket to somebody else if you cannot make the match. I do not think that the turnstile operatives will be too concerned at actually looking at the photograph.
Notwithstanding my previous post (No.4) - where I have stated that there shouldn't really be any practical difficulty in lending your ticket when you can't make it to a game - Why are only season ticket holders required to provide a photo ? There doesn't seem to be a need for 'casual' fans, or indeed AWAY FANS to provide such intimate information. Why ???????? With the greatest respect to non season ticket fans, I would suggest that the reason surely cannot be that season ticket holders need to be identified because they are likely to cause trouble ( in whatever form you may wish to consider ). I would say that season ticket holders are already identifiable - from their registration and dedicated seating inside the ground. In my humble submission season ticket holders are likely to be very low on the list of potential troublemakers who might need to be identified.
Basically mate you've hit the nail on the head with that comment. For what reason would you want to identify season ticket holders by a photo. It is obvious and accepting this change means if not now but in the future you will NOT be able to transfer your ticket imho.
I would like to pose our Club a few questions 1. For what logistical & practical reasons is a photo required for season ticket applications, 2. Why do those reasons ( if any ) not apply to 'casual' fans 3. Why do those reasons not apply to 'Away' fans 4. How many other league clubs operate photo cards 5. What does the club think to venues that allow entry by only scanning the bar code of your ticket. 6. Will the club expect Sheikhs to remove their turbans if there is a problem in identification 7. Will the club expect Muslims (women) to lift up their Burkas 8. On a cold day I might want to wear a balaclava ( I realise that this is a statement rather than a question ) Without wishing to be too unkind to the Club - I would say that, we only need a system such as No.5 above to speed up the process at the turnstile. Some of the current batch of operatives clearly demonstrate that they are being paid for their looks rather than their brains. If these good people are expected to start examining the picture on a photocard it can only slow up the admission process.
alwaysright -it was only this season I was stopped on the way to my seat by a steward, now I know I look like a criminal but I thought the guy was having a laugh! That's not me laughing in the funny sense. I have thought and suggested we should move to ST cards for a while rather than books but that inclusion did not include a photo. Another aspect of following on in the normal rules in the decades of turning us into a police state. There will be the many excuses coming forthwith why they need to be implemented and to be honest I cannot and will not see a justified reason.
Was that the steward with the complmentary cushions ? <brbsuffersfrompiles> sorry for the above silliness - bit it seems appropriate - why photocards only for STH ?
How will the photocard system work in the executive boxes ? ...................... A group photo ? Corporate hospitality !!!!! Like I keep saying - it's only season ticket holders who are being affected - you know - the only fans who have 'missed out' on cheap / free tickets this season !
This is what I'm going to send them with my application - why not - the idea gives me the hump ! please log in to view this image if I had a seat with restricted viewing ( they do exist in the GRS ) I would have to use this image please log in to view this image
As a causal ticket buyer the club still holds a significant amount of data about myself; name, address, contact details etc. the same amount as they probably hold on season tickets holders (last season), so even the causal trouble makers have enough data on the club's servers to deter them from being silly. I doubt the club will make ST non-transferable as that would offer no benefits to the club, they would want a bum on a seat paying for programmes etc rather than a empty seat. I think the photo would only be used for security
Sadly that is where it would cross very serious social and political boundaries for me with my extreme views. So in my case I see it as a two fold issue. Not football related but one for thought, I wonder in my lifetime if we will ever see the first micro chipped human?
