Memberships (2023/24)

[SuperFlat]

Regretting choosing Platinum Club now

[Wandy]

7 minutes ago, Shadow Puppets said:

That’s how ballots work though surely? That’s how the cup final worked at least.

 

Not really interested in how Wembley organise their ticketing process as its a soulless hellhole anyway. And its definitely not how it should be for a club to organise its games.

 

Imagine going to the cinema and not being able to pre-select where you sit. If a cinema can do it then so should a football club.

 

The ballot should just be a gateway into accessing the club's ticketing system.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I think you've got a decent chance in Platinum, it's quite a large section and less people can afford it. But I don't know how many ST holders they have. 

 

Hopefully this is the last match where you'll have to make this ridiculous choice. 

[bobbydazzla]

1 minute ago, Pata said:

Why would you limit that? Shouldn’t every fan have a chance to get a ticket?

 

They could have had a window in which memberships are sold e.g. buy one buy 1st Sept or miss out for this season.

 

So memberships were limited by time, not volume.

 

And don't forget that last season they said memberships wouldn't be capped, then capped them. So the management of comms around memberships has been shit.

[Bally21]

At least the club has listened and made an immediate adjustment - which is a step in the right direction. OK it is still far from perfect, but that is not to say they will not make further adjustments in time.

They've dropped a bollock and are making moves to correct it.

[Groundhog63]

Particularly fond of season ticket holders moaning that they can't get a membership as well. 

Bloke on twitter bumping his gums because he, and his Grandad, have season tickets and he usually tries to buy the empty seat beside them for his kid. Raging he can't do that now. 

Well either him or Grandid will have to suck it up and miss a game so the bairn CAN go. 

Simples 😂

[Wilson]

4 minutes ago, Rich said:

 

Were you seriously expecting anything else?

 

tbf I'm sure it did say you could only download the to one wallet

 

Feel like a reet fuckin prick accepting it at face value now ha

[Dr Venkman]

Does anyone know which areas of SJP are category 3? Category 2 is Gallowgate, Leazes L4, Leazes/East corner, etc. Is category 3 L7?

[christ]

The paint hadn’t even dried on my massive surfer flag of Jamal Khashoggi before the U turn. Well done NUFC.

[Bally21]

2 minutes ago, Dr Venkman said:

Does anyone know which areas of SJP are category 3? Category 2 is Gallowgate, Leazes L4, Leazes/East corner, etc. Is category 3 L7?

It used to be the very front block of the Leazes. Note sure if still the case TBH.

[NUFC91]

Anyone else not seeing anything? Logged into my dads mates but no option unfer ballotd or home tickets?

[Hovagod]

24 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

 

You could choose your seat for the cup final

Not if you were successful in the ballot

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, NUFC91 said:

Anyone else not seeing anything? Logged into my dads mates but no option unfer ballotd or home tickets?

 

Doesn't seem to show up on mobile.

 

https://book.nufc.co.uk/ballots

 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by AyeDubbleYoo

[James]

I think the ballot is going to be really important commercially, let me explain why.

 

the commercial analysts at the club will have categorised the fan base, probably more nuanced than I am going to, but here we go:

 

imagine a graph - the y-axis is how many games a fan attends, and the x-axis is the fan’s level of engagement (defined as willingness to engage in activity other than match tickets that generate revenue). Every fan is on this graph somewhere and of course part of the commercial lab will be getting more fans on the graph - but this post focuses on the fans we have.

 

once positioned on the graph, the fan base can be split into 4 groups

 

1. High Attendance, High Engagement

 

These are fans who go to every match, buy all the merchandise, spend a high proportion of their disposable income in the club. Think Adam P.

 

These are the most lucrative fans to the club. Due to the constrained nature of season tickets and requirements this to be a fairly well off local person, the commercial arm of the club has limited scope to grow the number of people in the group (probably limited to a couple of thousand), and they can’t increase commercial income from this group as they are already spending a lot.

 

the main objective for this group is therefore to keep them happy.

 

2. High Attendance, Low Engagement

 

There are two subsets of these groups, those that have season tickets, and those who attend quite a few games a season.

 

Both of these groups however have things in common, they don’t buy much merchandise, they don’t eat or drink at the stadium, so the per match income is very little over the ticket price. Think Greg or Crumpy Gunt.

 

the commercial arm has very little scope to increase income from this group either, especially as constrained to 50,000 to 70,000 people.

 

whilst the club likes its season ticket holders as a source of guaranteed income they may in the future try to reduce these numbers a little if they believe they can fill the stadium with more commercially viable fans.

 

meanwhile, those fans who buy several individual tickets a season but don’t buy any extras, the commercial arm of the club hates them as they are blocking more profitable fans from coming to games. More on this in a moment.

 

3. Low attendance, low engagement.

 

fans who don’t go to games and aren’t generating income for the club. This is the largest group of fans by far with the biggest opportunity to generate new sources of income. However as there are only so many match tickets, the commercial arm prioritises trying to increase engagement in this group.

 

4. Low attendance, high engagement

 

Fans who are willing to spend a fair amount n non ticket revenue but for whatever reason can’t get to games and may be put off by competition for in-demand tickets.

 

Of those fans in this group who get to a match, they spend significantly more per game.

 

the commercial arm therefore loves this group, wants as many in this group as possible and then would like to see as many individual tickets as possible sold to this group at the expense of those who currently go to games more often.

 

additionally potential sponsors are most interested in this group so having as many fans in this group as possible drives other commercial income.

 

 

 

 

The ballot therefore does a few things. It cuts down on the unprofitable fans from group 2. It gets more of group 3 and 4 at games which  generates extra revenue from group 4 whilst encouraging more on group 3 to transition to group 4.

 

 

a quick back of envelope calculation on the basis of what I have described above has led me to the conclusion that the ballot will in the long term contribute to £20m - £30m new income per season.

 

[ExiledGeordie]

So can you now basically pick all sections or just one section depending one how much you want to pay per ticket? The wording seems to be suggesting you can try and apply for up to 6 tickets? Only just looked at it now at work. It’s only one per member though isn’t it

[et tu brute]

1 hour ago, Infatuation Junkie said:

Still can’t choose a seat

Exactly, which means that you're still probably going to be fucked if you have mobility issues. The main issue has still not been resolved. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

4 minutes ago, ExiledGeordie said:

So can you now basically pick all sections or just one section depending one how much you want to pay per ticket? The wording seems to be suggesting you can try and apply for up to 6 tickets? Only just looked at it now at work. It’s only one per member though isn’t it

 

6 tickets is the max you can apply for in a group, but each has to be for a different owner. 

 

You can only choose one price bracket. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

11 minutes ago, James said:

The ballot therefore does a few things. It cuts down on the unprofitable fans from group 2. It gets more of group 3 and 4 at games which  generates extra revenue from group 4 whilst encouraging more on group 3 to transition to group 4.

 

a quick back of envelope calculation on the basis of what I have described above has led me to the conclusion that the ballot will in the long term contribute to £20m - £30m new income per season.

 

An interesting post, even though I doubt any commercial analysis is involved in this

 

But how do you know the right fans will win in the ballot? You would think if they live away from example, the lack of certainty and ability to plan would make it even less likely that they will start coming. 

[bobbydazzla]

Click on the link in the "Ballot is Open" email

 

Takes me to a page which says "Not valid URL"

 

You couldn't make this shit up

 

It's 2023 for fucks sake

 

20 years ago I was using online ticket buying systems that were more advanced than this sack of absolute shite

 

Have we got a Victorian luddite sat in his top hat running our IT systems or what

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2023 by bobbydazzla

[huss9]

my godson is in my friends and family grp

so can usually book tickets for him

but it wont let me into ballots

[Wilson]

6 minutes ago, huss9 said:

my godson is in my friends and family grp

so can usually book tickets for him

but it wont let me into ballots

 

I was the same, doesn't let me in on my account as I don't have a membership, despite having the bairns and missus as strong relationship and they all have memberships.  Just had to log into her account but it just seems a shit storm, it's all been made unnecessarily restrictive. 

 

 

[NITON]

15 minutes ago, huss9 said:

my godson is in my friends and family grp

so can usually book tickets for him

but it wont let me into ballots

As @Wilson mentioned - you can only select linked accounts that also have membership.

[NITON]

Something seems 'off' about them only mentioning the allocated seating yesterday and the range was stated as £44 to £74.  Then when you have the option to select a category the family option is there with a £31(IIRC) starting point for an adult ticket.  Raises a couple of concerns/questions around did the initial random allocation completely forgot about family category?  Or did they want to try and get away with bumping the family category?...  I think the whole thing has been poorly implemented and communicated.  The club have been somewhat underhanded IMHO not raising these solution for discussion at the various ticket engagement events or with the fan groups.  First mis-step from the owners that has impacted a large number of people.

[James]

20 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

An interesting post, even though I doubt any commercial analysis is involved in this

 

But how do you know the right fans will win in the ballot? You would think if they live away from example, the lack of certainty and ability to plan would make it even less likely that they will start coming. 

the ballot will not be completely random and probability of being selected will be determined by how many times you have previously been to matches and other data they have on you.

 

you are very right, no commercial analysis, very back of envelope, but if we get 7,500 Group 4s at every match and they generate £50 extra commercial income that is £10m.

 

then you look at sponsorship deals for clubs like Man Utd with a lot of Group 4 fans and you can assume that being able to generate £10-20m in sponsorship revenue on the basis of better fan engagement is easily very possible.

[JJ7]

1 hour ago, llcoolc157 said:

Away ticket situation needs to be addressed too…. Setting aside a number of tickets for ballot will no doubt see the “loyalty” cut off point increasing from 60 points to 80 for most matches before they sell out…. Doesn’t sit right with me….

I’d get this argument if the same people making it on Twitter cared about the fact that hundreds in the away end are getting the tickets passed on by friends. I mean I’ve been to 50+ away games and don’t have a loyalty point so I’ve taken advantage myself. Being up in arms about fairness because the cut off point is going to be higher because 100-200 are going to a ballot, doesn’t seem to be anything to do with fairness. I saw someone arguing all day yesterday on Twitter who at one point said ‘get some friends’. The club aren’t going to be back a system that sees hundreds of people getting tickets passed on to them, or people building up loyalty points up even though they don’t go. It’s been convenient for me, but it’s hardly ‘fair’.