Match Atmosphere

[ponsaelius]

I'm definitely of the view that there is a happy medium to strike. I say that as somebody who once had a ST with 50ish points, and has since been to many aways relying on others for tickets. 

 

The points system last year had effectively become an arms race, as if you didn't get one for every game you fell behind others who did. So people with high points totals would buy them even if they had no intention of going, safe in the knowledge you'd always be able to pass it on with such huge demand. In addition to this while above face value touting has never really happened in my experience, bus+ticket deals that are commonplace are effectively a backdoor form of touting and hoovered up a huge amount of tickets. Again those supplying their STs to buses were always happy to do so to keep getting loyalty points rolling in and maintain status quo and permanent access when they did want to go.

 

The club probably were right to crack this situation as it was becoming a closed shop and had effectively taken sales control away from the club. The measures have drastically lowered the points threshold which is a good thing for those seeking to build points on their own tickets.

 

The flip side of this is there are a lot of fans who have gone to away games for years on other people's tickets who are marginalised and unless have very trusting friends are now completely unable to go. Some of these people have done more miles than most and now miss out on the good times.

 

The compromise is clearly there to be struck where deterrent remains, but there is increased flexibility for ticket transfers to known individuals over the course of the season. I would support awarding no points in these cases, so there is no incentive for people to do it just for the point but also no way to queue jump points accumulation for the individuals receiving them. IMO this is likely to result in a pretty fair equilibrium while also preventing the unsightly situation of empty seats in the away end when there's something like a last minute rail strike.

 

 

Edited February 15 by ponsaelius

[SteV]

3 minutes ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

It only became a problem because a lot of people suddenly decided they fancied away games now we had a good team and they were more likely to see a win. People never complained about being unable to obtain away tickets when we were shite!

 

I'd rather have kept it the same and allowed the lads and lasses who'd been filling away ends all over the Country when we've been worse than shite to enjoy the better times as it's them who deserve it, not the JCLs.

 

Away games have always been more Ad hoc. 70s and 80s it would often be decided in a pub on theFriday night and groups of lads would pile into Transit vans the next day to wherever we were playing.

 

Then the 90s came and games became all ticket so ways were found around that by ticket sharing, a mate sorting you, or a mate of a mate etc. It's basically what our away support has been built on.

 

Just a real shame that so many people, people who made our away support famous throughout the county and further afield for their noise and passion, now aren't allowed to go.

I agree with that first paragraph, but that’s kind of inevitable when you start becoming successful (if you can say that about us).

 

I take your point about the people who travelled all over and now can’t go, that’s genuinely shite, but I still don’t think they could have left it as was.

 

Youngsters have to be given the chance to get on board somehow. Aye, maybe they could have just sourced tickets from others all the time (as some probably did), but that’s not really a coherent way forward.

 

Perhaps they could (and still can), do something around holding tickets back for U25’s, or something like that?

 

Whatever they do they can’t win do a degree though. And we generally all look at things from our own individual circumstances (which is perfectly understandable).

[NUFC91]

You could argue a rolling system would of fixed it like other clubs do. So look at points for previous few seasons etc.

[Wallsendmag]

1 hour ago, SteV said:

I agree with that first paragraph, but that’s kind of inevitable when you start becoming successful (if you can say that about us).

 

I take your point about the people who travelled all over and now can’t go, that’s genuinely shite, but I still don’t think they could have left it as was.

 

Youngsters have to be given the chance to get on board somehow. Aye, maybe they could have just sourced tickets from others all the time (as some probably did), but that’s not really a coherent way forward.

 

Perhaps they could (and still can), do something around holding tickets back for U25’s, or something like that?

 

Whatever they do they can’t win do a degree though. And we generally all look at things from our own individual circumstances (which is perfectly understandable).

 

That's something I've said for a while now. They should keep 10% of our away allocation exclusively for supporters aged 21 or under. Think Man City do something similar for U18s. Gives them a chance to build their loyalty points. Anyone older than that has had a chance to build points up so if they chose not to go when we were hopeless that's on them.

[NUFC91]

I honestly think the intial rush will slow down anyway. Even since checks came in points have started to lower.

 

 

[Geogaddi]

For every club that use digital tickets they just need to make it so away tickets are just like a season ticket , you get an away ticket that can only be used once downloaded to your device and if you need to pass it on then you do it the same way you pass on your ticket for a home game and it's only allowed to be passed on once or twice a season.

[Dan Gleebals]

23 hours ago, SteV said:

I agree in that it was rarely abused in terms of direct touting (probably did go on a little bit, but certainly not to the point where it was a major issue).

 

But they had they had to open up a door to youngsters to accumulate their own points somehow.

 

People complained recently (rightly or wrongly) about the away following at the mackems being made up of ‘oldies’. 
 

If we didn’t do something to start getting youngsters to accrue points, that would only get worse.

Surely they could just allocate a % of sales to a certain age profile (or length of time you have a season ticket) if that was the case, and a lower number of points needed to get a ticket - that could even it up a bit and encourage more to apply that way.  Just a thought.

[SteV]

Just now, Dan Gleebals said:

Surely they could just allocate a % of sales to a certain age profile (or length of time you have a season ticket) if that was the case, and a lower number of points needed to get a ticket - that could even it up a bit and encourage more to apply that way.  Just a thought.

Possibly. There’s probably lots of things of that ilk that they could do. But I don’t think just leaving things as they were was a particularly valid idea going forward.

[J7]

23 hours ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

That's something I've said for a while now. They should keep 10% of our away allocation exclusively for supporters aged 21 or under. Think Man City do something similar for U18s. Gives them a chance to build their loyalty points. Anyone older than that has had a chance to build points up so if they chose not to go when we were hopeless that's on them.

*when Ashley owned the club.

 

I don’t blame them. 

[Guest]

It's because of local fans according to this numpty, his replies in this thread are amazing...

 

 

 

 

Edited February 16 by Optimistic Nut

[wormy]

10 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

It's because of local fans according to this numpty, his replies in this thread are amazing...

 

I'm prepared to hear him out. Maybe the furthest postcode gets increased odds to balance things out. Sounds fair imo. 

[Wallsendmag]

6 hours ago, JJ7 said:

*when Ashley owned the club.

 

I don’t blame them. 

 

Tbh you speak like someone who's never been to an away game before. It's always been about much more than the football. I've been to 150+ aways and looking back at my fondest/funniest memories, they are all from what happened away from the ground.

[Dr.Spaceman]

I'm beginning to think we should move the ground out of town. If, as people say we will lose some fans over it I hope it's those like mdoogan97

[Wallsendmag]

3 minutes ago, Dr.Spaceman said:

I'm beginning to think we should move the ground out of town. If, as people say we will lose some fans over it I hope it's those like mdoogan97

 

He's a well known twitter WUM mate. Not even sure he's a Newcastle fan.

[TheBrownBottle]

48 minutes ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Tbh you speak like someone who's never been to an away game before. It's always been about much more than the football. I've been to 150+ aways and looking back at my fondest/funniest memories, they are all from what happened away from the ground.

Yep.  Top of my head I’ve done around 100 away days including Europe - of course, loads will have done far more than that.  The win ratio would be terrible - but it’s not the football that necessarily sticks in the mind.  Sometimes whichever small Yorkshire town Barrett’s coaches pulled into on the way back to Newcastle produced happier memories than the 90 mins of turgid football that preceded it

[Superior Acuña]

3 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

It's because of local fans according to this numpty, his replies in this thread are amazing...

 

 

 

 

 

 

i'm pretty sure he's taking the piss. ("btw (by the way))

[Wallsendmag]

23 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Yep.  Top of my head I’ve done around 100 away days including Europe - of course, loads will have done far more than that.  The win ratio would be terrible - but it’s not the football that necessarily sticks in the mind.  Sometimes whichever small Yorkshire town Barrett’s coaches pulled into on the way back to Newcastle produced happier memories than the 90 mins of turgid football that preceded it

 

We'd have been on the same buses many times mate. Done well over 100 of my away games with Barrett. Visited towns and villages all over the country that I never knew existed!

[TheBrownBottle]

4 hours ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

We'd have been on the same buses many times mate. Done well over 100 of my away games with Barrett. Visited towns and villages all over the country that I never knew existed!

Haha yep, somehow they were always a good night out - always went to a town or village which was just the right size depending on how many coaches were on.  Great times

[J7]

20 hours ago, Wallsendmag said:

 

Tbh you speak like someone who's never been to an away game before. It's always been about much more than the football. I've been to 150+ aways and looking back at my fondest/funniest memories, they are all from what happened away from the ground.

I’ve been to plenty and had some great days regardless of the result. Again though, I don’t blame people for not going under Ashley. Don’t think it’s a ‘when we were shit’ argument. 

[TheGuv]

Worst I’ve ever experienced today. 30

mins to get in. I was in Level 7 standing section and repeatedly told to sit down. 
 

Don’t even recognise the fan base any more. 

[Whitley mag]

1 minute ago, TheGuv said:

Worst I’ve ever experienced today. 30

mins to get in. I was in Level 7 standing section and repeatedly told to sit down. 
 

Don’t even recognise the fan base any more. 

Did you explain it’s the standing section and politely tell them to fuck off ?

[TheGuv]

1 minute ago, Whitley mag said:

Did you explain it’s the standing section and politely tell them to fuck off ?

Yep. Ended up having loads of abuse so ended up sitting down, as I couldn’t be arsed. 
 

I was in an overwhelming minority.

 

Another blunder of the ballot btw. I was really excited to be in safe standing today btw. Turns out plenty of fans don’t agree. They were sat down for the penalty ffs.

[OCOCOL]

On 15/02/2024 at 17:05, Wallsendmag said:

 

That's something I've said for a while now. They should keep 10% of our away allocation exclusively for supporters aged 21 or under. Think Man City do something similar for U18s. Gives them a chance to build their loyalty points. Anyone older than that has had a chance to build points up so if they chose not to go when we were hopeless that's on them.

agree totally. If you have supported us for 10+ years and are 25+ and don’t have at least 10-15 LP then you didn’t want to do aways.. what’s changed - were better and more popular and that’s ok too but you should start at the bottom and work up! 

[OCOCOL]

2 minutes ago, TheGuv said:

Yep. Ended up having loads of abuse so ended up sitting down, as I couldn’t be arsed. 
 

I was in an overwhelming minority.

 

Another blunder of the ballot btw. I was really excited to be in safe standing today btw. Turns out plenty of fans don’t agree. They were sat down for the penalty ffs.

im in gallowgate and my mate said why they all sitting down in the standing area. The mind boggles … 

[Whitley mag]

1 minute ago, TheGuv said:

Yep. Ended up having loads of abuse so ended up sitting down, as I couldn’t be arsed. 
 

I was in an overwhelming minority.

 

Another blunder of the ballot btw. I was really excited to be in safe standing today btw. Turns out plenty of fans don’t agree. They were sat down for the penalty ffs.

Sad to hear fanbase has changed no doubt about it, undoubtedly an awkward situation and not helped by ballot.