Memberships (2024/25)

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I think ST holders could be allowed to give up their seat for a game and enter the ballot in a group with other people instead. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

4 minutes ago, ExiledGeordie said:

Im not sure I’ll bother with membership next season 

I will but I might not bother with cup games. 

[bobbydazzla]

Anything that leads to some open discussion with the club about the frustration of memberships is worthy of having.

 

We've currently got a group of fans who are pouring substantial amounts of money, time and effort into getting to home games and they get nothing in the way of recognition for this.

 

The club won't give us a chance of buying ST's or even getting on an ST waiting list. They won't give us any form of priority over members who attend from time to time. And in this latest instance we've been completely cut out of the reckoning for Wembley tickets

 

I've said this in another thread, but there'd be hell on if the lads & lasses with ST's who travel the millions of miles to follow us home and away, were put on the same level of priority as a ST holder who didn't even go to a single cup game. 

 

It's quite right that the ST holders who put the most effort in are recognised by the club and get the most back. Why can't we have the same for members ?

 

 

 

 

Edited February 11 by bobbydazzla

[Hovagod]

Has the season ticket waiting list ever been raised with the club? Surely it's a piece of piss to set up, and it doesn't involve any particular admin does it? 

[jack j]

What was the criteria for the 2 cup finals in the 90s? Presume we were still a 36k seater then so didn't have as many season ticket holders?

 

As a season ticket holder I'd like to see members tiers introduced and a certain amount of tickets for big games like this held back by members

 

But I'd also like to see my loyalty points recognised for something which seemingly now, are not worth much when it comes to a cup final

 

 

Edited February 11 by jack j

[SteV]

2 minutes ago, Hovagod said:

Has the season ticket waiting list ever been raised with the club? Surely it's a piece of piss to set up, and it doesn't involve any particular admin does it? 

There’s an argument that until we expand / get a new ground, it’s probably not sensible to issue any further ST’s (even to just replace ones not renewed) as tickets are so oversubscribed, you’re better off having as many as possible in the ballot so more members at least get to go occasionally.

[NobbySolano]

I posted this in the wrong thread yesterday but I'd like to hear if this sounds crazy to others.

 

The goal here is to create opportunities for more people to be a ST holder, put real teeth into enforcement, and allow more folks access to games in general.

 

1. Season ticket holders only get points for games attended not just bought.

 

2. Tickets must be resold through the club exchange. The club will share 30% of profit with ST holder and give a fraction of loyalty point.

 

3. Random checks, if ticket resold out of exchange then ST holder gets banned. 

 

4. Start from zero only count 1 previous year. Points only roll for 2 years at a time.

 

5. ST holder must attend (not just buy) x% of games or lose rights to it. Yes it's meant to be harsh to give others the opportunity. It can be phased so the % is low.

 

6. Some alternatives include selling partial season tickets, like you get the first 10, the next 8 plus first 1 cup, another 8 plus first 1 other cup, and then 10. This would then allow 4x the holders. You could get creative with the games in each package. Has the added benefit of making it more affordable. 

 

The key is to force rotation of ticket holders to be only those attending consistently, while giving them a chance to sell the odd ticket but allowing the club to profit and track. The tracking will allow cup schemes to be managed in a fair way.

 

IMO If people complain about this is because they are being selfish and/or only do it to profit and not attend. But I'm open to other points of view here.

 

If implemented right, it's possible that you may have your ST, have to give it up at one point for to not attending, but still get a chance to get another one after since it's likely there will be a lot of rotation.

 

[bobbydazzla]

 

7 minutes ago, SteV said:

There’s an argument that until we expand / get a new ground, it’s probably not sensible to issue any further ST’s (even to just replace ones not renewed) as tickets are so oversubscribed, you’re better off having as many as possible in the ballot so more members at least get to go occasionally.

 

And I totally get the logic of this, but if you're not going to release any ST's then at least provide some form of tiering for members to earn a level of priority via attendance

 

Yesterday's announcement just emphasised that we've got a massively segregated system based on someone's willingness to hold onto their ST under Ashley

 

If you've got an ST the club see you as a valued customer, but without an ST they don't give a fuck, you're stuck at the bottom of the pile with no way of raising your status

 

 

 

Edited February 11 by bobbydazzla

[NSG]

In reality, being a season ticket holder should only have one perk - have a ticket to all home league games.

 

Everything else (ie accumulation of loyalty points) should be available to members too.

 

What happens when we have a new stadium with 70,000 in it? Likelihood is 60,000 of them will attend nigh on every game. Why should half of them get access to away games and not the other half? 
 

This is especially relevant given the fact a substantial number of members are people who jacked their ST in to try to force Ashley out, and are now paying for it with a lifetime of not being able to get tickets.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

17 minutes ago, NobbySolano said:

I posted this in the wrong thread yesterday but I'd like to hear if this sounds crazy to others.

 

The goal here is to create opportunities for more people to be a ST holder, put real teeth into enforcement, and allow more folks access to games in general.

 

1. Season ticket holders only get points for games attended not just bought.

 

2. Tickets must be resold through the club exchange. The club will share 30% of profit with ST holder and give a fraction of loyalty point.

 

3. Random checks, if ticket resold out of exchange then ST holder gets banned. 

 

4. Start from zero only count 1 previous year. Points only roll for 2 years at a time.

 

5. ST holder must attend (not just buy) x% of games or lose rights to it. Yes it's meant to be harsh to give others the opportunity. It can be phased so the % is low.

 

6. Some alternatives include selling partial season tickets, like you get the first 10, the next 8 plus first 1 cup, another 8 plus first 1 other cup, and then 10. This would then allow 4x the holders. You could get creative with the games in each package. Has the added benefit of making it more affordable. 

 

The key is to force rotation of ticket holders to be only those attending consistently, while giving them a chance to sell the odd ticket but allowing the club to profit and track. The tracking will allow cup schemes to be managed in a fair way.

 

IMO If people complain about this is because they are being selfish and/or only do it to profit and not attend. But I'm open to other points of view here.

 

If implemented right, it's possible that you may have your ST, have to give it up at one point for to not attending, but still get a chance to get another one after since it's likely there will be a lot of rotation.

 

 

There are definitely arguments to be had about being innovative in an environment where people would kill for a ST and the club don't really need to lock in the seat sales because demand is way above supply. But these things are very alien in football and I can't see the domination of the ST holder ever being questioned or changed. 

 

Best chance we have is a new stadium and a few more STs going on sale. 

 

I can possibly see tiered membership but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a higher price rather than based on history. And even if it is based on history, ballots and loyalty points have restricted the loyalty that people could show. 

 

Not an easy one to solve.

[SteV]

12 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

 

 

And I totally get the logic of this, but if you're not going to release any ST's then at least provide some form of tiering for members to earn a level of priority via attendance

 

Yesterday's announcement just emphasised that we've got a massively segregated system based on someone's willingness to hold onto their ST under Ashley

 

If you've got an ST the club see you as a valued customer, but without an ST they don't give a fuck, you're stuck at the bottom of the pile with no way of raising your status

 

 

 

 

Tiered membership has to come in. 
 

As I’ve said previously, I give the club a pass for not introducing it immediately as data from the Ashley era would have been close to useless. 
 

But by the end of this season they’ll have two full seasons of membership data, and IMO that’s enough to work with. I don’t know how they go about coming up with something ’fair’, inevitably that’s probably impossible, but they should be able to come up with something reasonable.

[ramirez]

28 minutes ago, jack j said:

What was the criteria for the 2 cup finals in the 90s? Presume we were still a 36k seater then so didn't have as many season ticket holders?

 

As a season ticket holder I'd like to see members tiers introduced and a certain amount of tickets for big games like this held back by members

 

But I'd also like to see my loyalty points recognised for something which seemingly now, are not worth much when it comes to a cup final

 

 

 

Can't recall what it was exactly but I'm sure my cousin missed out one year due to posting the wrong voucher in.  Fa Cup finals in the smaller old Wembley may have only meant us getting 25-28k tickets IIRC.  

[ramirez]

When were memberships brought in? I recall getting one when Keegan came back, and possibly to ensure derby tickets in the mid 2000's after giving up my ST, but only seem to have become a big talking point since the takeover.  Historically as they were not a thing ST holders would always get first dibs for finals etc, the question is does this need looking at now.  I agree its wrong that someone could buy a half price membership now, put in a ballot application for brighton and be in the same pot as someone who has been to loads.  

[SteV]

29 minutes ago, NobbySolano said:

I posted this in the wrong thread yesterday but I'd like to hear if this sounds crazy to others.

 

The goal here is to create opportunities for more people to be a ST holder, put real teeth into enforcement, and allow more folks access to games in general.

 

1. Season ticket holders only get points for games attended not just bought.

 

2. Tickets must be resold through the club exchange. The club will share 30% of profit with ST holder and give a fraction of loyalty point.

 

3. Random checks, if ticket resold out of exchange then ST holder gets banned. 

 

4. Start from zero only count 1 previous year. Points only roll for 2 years at a time.

 

5. ST holder must attend (not just buy) x% of games or lose rights to it. Yes it's meant to be harsh to give others the opportunity. It can be phased so the % is low.

 

6. Some alternatives include selling partial season tickets, like you get the first 10, the next 8 plus first 1 cup, another 8 plus first 1 other cup, and then 10. This would then allow 4x the holders. You could get creative with the games in each package. Has the added benefit of making it more affordable. 

 

The key is to force rotation of ticket holders to be only those attending consistently, while giving them a chance to sell the odd ticket but allowing the club to profit and track. The tracking will allow cup schemes to be managed in a fair way.

 

IMO If people complain about this is because they are being selfish and/or only do it to profit and not attend. But I'm open to other points of view here.

 

If implemented right, it's possible that you may have your ST, have to give it up at one point for to not attending, but still get a chance to get another one after since it's likely there will be a lot of rotation.

 

1. Don’t really understand what points we’re talking about here? Are you advocating issuing points for attending home games?

 

2. That’s really supposed to happen now, although things aren’t technologically advanced enough to prevent it being easy to navigate round.

 

3. Would require a massive shift in fan mentality to accept ID checks at home games. And also considerably better queue management!

 

4. Similar to point 1, not sure what points you’re referring to?

5. You mean you can’t leave your seat empty more than X times a season? Fair enough.

 

6. That might work to some degree in a new stadium.

 

Probably sounds like I’m being negative towards your ideas there, but that’s not necessarily the case. Even if I don’t agree with some of them, this kind of ‘out the box’ thinking is probably helpful towards coming up with solutions going forward.

[mattypnufc]

I just don't understand why there isn't a defined waiting list, regardless of stadium size or not - surely it benefits the club to do this now and therefore have a set criteria people can work towards when/if we do move?  

 

All the other top clubs do it despite having demand/percentages set for 'member sale'.

 

I understand the market is clearly there for the club to make extra money on general sale, but I reckon the natural churn/turnover of people giving up tickets must be half decent per season (natural causes/financial challenges ect ect), not talking loads, but at least 100 or so I reckon, decent enough to not continually have people effectively locked out forever.  

 

In my eyes, you need a group of people willing to take these tickets on for when things aren't going quite as good, and taking into account our ageing support too, the young lot are all effectively locked out too.  The seat next to my mate is spare, but he has to enter a ballot, or general sale, and try and get us to buy it for his son.  That can't be right.

 

Purely from a selfish perspective, my frustration is the club did nothing to consult or speak with people who'd had their tickets for years and left for very very justified reasons at the time, all of which was/is documented too in the form of communication to the club at the point of sacking things off.  

 

Some very simple dialogue would suffice - we lost some very good ST holders over the years due to the way our previous incumbant went on. 

 

 

 

[ramirez]

I noticed at one game recently, though it could have been any as the point will be the same, the only non white faces at the stadium are either on the pitch or working in the bars, must be a very low number that probably doesn't reflect the demographics of the city these days, and obviously its hard to change for the reasons already mentioned.  Not suggesting that anyone should get an advantage in getting tickets etc but I bet the club would prefer a more diverse crowd.

[Superior Acuña]

34 minutes ago, ramirez said:

When were memberships brought in? I recall getting one when Keegan came back, and possibly to ensure derby tickets in the mid 2000's after giving up my ST, but only seem to have become a big talking point since the takeover.  Historically as they were not a thing ST holders would always get first dibs for finals etc, the question is does this need looking at now.  I agree its wrong that someone could buy a half price membership now, put in a ballot application for brighton and be in the same pot as someone who has been to loads.  

Until last season ST holders got the opportunity to buy a guest ticket, so even though there was membership, there was no need to get one if you had a ST holder who could get you a ticket. That's how I always got one.

[gdm]

41 minutes ago, ramirez said:

When were memberships brought in? I recall getting one when Keegan came back, and possibly to ensure derby tickets in the mid 2000's after giving up my ST, but only seem to have become a big talking point since the takeover.  Historically as they were not a thing ST holders would always get first dibs for finals etc, the question is does this need looking at now.  I agree its wrong that someone could buy a half price membership now, put in a ballot application for brighton and be in the same pot as someone who has been to loads.  

I had one back in 2007 but may have been brought in earlier 

[bobbydazzla]

Recent membership history is...

 

Season 21-22 (post-takeover): bit hazy memory, but I think very soon after takeover they they closed off memberships. I know for that season I got tickets via a pal with an ST who could buy an extra 

Season 22-23: they closed off memberships without warning people they were going to do it, locking out anyone who hadn't already signed up

Season 23-24: unlimited memberships, sold all season

Season 24-25: Mags+ has just been closed off, normal memberships still available at 50% discount from Feb 25

 

1000 x ST's were put on sale in the summer of 22, other than that there's been nowt

 

I reckon I've spent £3-4,000 on tickets since 21-22, I've bought tickets for every game I've been able to go to (90% I reckon), I've spent untold hours battling a shit IT system. 

And I've got precisely nothing to show for my commitment to attending games

 

A punter who has applied for 1 x ballot and might never have actually been to a single game in their life has the same level of priority as me, in the clubs eyes

 

 

 

 

Edited February 11 by bobbydazzla

[gdm]

20 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

Recent membership history is...

 

Season 21-22 (post-takeover): bit hazy memory, but I think very soon after takeover they they closed off memberships. I know for that season I got tickets via a pal with an ST who could buy an extra 

Season 22-23: they closed off memberships without warning people they were going to do it, locking out anyone who hadn't already signed up

Season 23-24: unlimited memberships, sold all season

Season 24-25: Mags+ has just been closed off, normal memberships still available at 50% discount from Feb 25

 

1000 x ST's were put on sale in the summer of 22, other than that there's been nowt

 

I reckon I've spent £3-4,000 on tickets since 21-22, I've bought tickets for every game I've been able to go to (90% I reckon), I've spent untold hours battling a shit IT system. 

And I've got precisely nothing to show for my commitment to attending games

 

A punter who has applied for 1 x ballot and might never have actually been to a single game in their life has the same level of priority as me, in the clubs eyes

 

 

 

 

 

I get your frustration and I get your point but you haven’t got precisely nothing you’ve got to attend games that others couldn’t. I work Saturdays so can’t get to many games but in the ballots I have entered I’ve been successful once. Please don’t take for granted the games you’ve been able to attend just because you miss out on a cup final. 
 

I’ve always known I’ve no chance of a ticket for the final and I’ve sat back and saw arguments every which way on eligibility for the final and almost all are different and almost all make good points. Essentially the club are never gonna win here 

 

 

Edited February 11 by gdm

[Hughesy]

8 minutes ago, gdm said:

I get your frustration and I get your point but you haven’t got precisely nothing you’ve got to attend games that others couldn’t. I work Saturdays so can’t get to many games but in the ballots I have entered I’ve been successful once. Please don’t take for granted the games you’ve been able to attend just because you miss out on a cup final. 
 

I’ve always known I’ve no chance of a ticket for the final and I’ve sat back and saw arguments every which way on eligibility for the final and almost all are different and almost all make good points. Essentially the club are never gonna win here 

 

 

 

I think that's exactly right - it's basically an insolvable problem and everyone protects their own vested interests. 

 

My dad, brother and I have season tickets but we live in the South East.  My dad has had his season ticket for 50+ years and all three of us have over 100 loyalty points. 

 

Attending a home game is a 600 mile+ road trip and my dad, in his 70s, does this 10 or so times a season.  But he's realistically never going to drive up for a midweek Carabao cup game, so he's not going to get a cup final ticket.  Do I think that's fair?  Not particularly, but I understand why the club has decided to prioritise people who have attended the Carabao cup games.

[SteV]

31 minutes ago, bobbydazzla said:

Recent membership history is...

 

Season 21-22 (post-takeover): bit hazy memory, but I think very soon after takeover they they closed off memberships. I know for that season I got tickets via a pal with an ST who could buy an extra 

Season 22-23: they closed off memberships without warning people they were going to do it, locking out anyone who hadn't already signed up

Season 23-24: unlimited memberships, sold all season

Season 24-25: Mags+ has just been closed off, normal memberships still available at 50% discount from Feb 25

 

1000 x ST's were put on sale in the summer of 22, other than that there's been nowt

 

I reckon I've spent £3-4,000 on tickets since 21-22, I've bought tickets for every game I've been able to go to (90% I reckon), I've spent untold hours battling a shit IT system. 

And I've got precisely nothing to show for my commitment to attending games

 

A punter who has applied for 1 x ballot and might never have actually been to a single game in their life has the same level of priority as me, in the clubs eyes

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing I would say on the positive side for you, is at least all of your efforts in the last two seasons have been properly recorded. Appreciate at present that equates to next to fuck all, but at least if they do get round to sorting tiered memberships, it might help put you in a decent position.

[Sima]

5 minutes ago, Hughesy said:

I think that's exactly right - it's basically an insolvable problem and everyone protects their own vested interests. 

 

My dad, brother and I have season tickets but we live in the South East.  My dad has had his season ticket for 50+ years and all three of us have over 100 loyalty points. 

 

Attending a home game is a 600 mile+ road trip and my dad, in his 70s, does this 10 or so times a season.  But he's realistically never going to drive up for a midweek Carabao cup game, so he's not going to get a cup final ticket.  Do I think that's fair?  Not particularly, but I understand why the club has decided to prioritise people who have attended the Carabao cup games.

 

Only if you have a season ticket.

[Wilson]

The one positive out of my dilemma is that the bairn is buzzing at the prospect she'll be watching it somewhere with me instead of me being away all weekend.... Little shit told me she hopes there's nowt left for pot 4 so I can't even apply in the ballot  

 

 

Edited February 11 by Wilson

[Slim]

3 hours ago, SteV said:

There’s an argument that until we expand / get a new ground, it’s probably not sensible to issue any further ST’s (even to just replace ones not renewed) as tickets are so oversubscribed, you’re better off having as many as possible in the ballot so more members at least get to go occasionally.

Man City stopped new season tickets so probably a trend that will continue.