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Away Fans Consultation Meeting

    Home Meetings Away Fans Consultation Meeting
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    Away Fans Consultation Meeting

    By Mo Razzaq | Meetings | Comments are Closed | 19 July, 2019 | 0

    Membership schemes have been a topical subject for several clubs. Supporter groups have heavily criticised these schemes accusing clubs of cashing in on their loyalty.

    As for our ‘away scheme,’ it was clear from elements of it that it had issues, particularly in how it was open to abuse. For members wishing to attend away games with their families, it was unnecessary with many priced out. Though the scheme wasn’t mandatory and supporters could still purchase away tickets based on their booking history.

    Access to tickets must be based on fairness, rather than a one-off entry fee, whilst striking a sensible balance between the loyalty of existing fans and allowing new supporters to also acquire tickets. We recognise that there isn’t a perfect system and some supporters preferred paying for the convenience to have priority access.
    The scheme amongst other ticketing issues was discussed in depth at the Away Fans Consultation Group last month. Below are the minutes.

    Away Consultation Meeting Minutes – Thursday 20th June 2019

    Attendees: Dan Walker (AVFC), Lee Preece (AVFC), Lynne O’Reardon (AVFC), Nathan
    Thurman (AVFC), Anne Edwards, Anton Cuscito, David Michael, Joanne McKibbens,
    John Holder, Jonathan Knibb, Mark McFarland, Mo Razzaq, PC Stuart Bladen, Steve
    Gough, Thomas Cole

    Apologies: John Perks, Max Stokes

    Meeting dates for the 2019/20 season
    The club proposed dates for future meetings to ensure a consistent approach and give the
    group plenty of notice. Last season it proved difficult to get everyone together as meetings
    were not structured in terms of set dates. Dates for the season’s meetings were confirmed as
    Thursday 24th October 2019 and Thursday 5th March 2020. These dates will give the group
    chance to reflect after the start of the season and then again before the end of the season.

    Friendly Details

    Shrewsbury – Up to 3,000 tickets if required
    • £10 Adults, £5 U24/O65/U18/Student, U12 FREE, £5 Disabled – On
    sale from Monday 24th June 5pm Online

    Walsall – Up to 3,000 tickets if required
    • £12 Adults/U22, U18/O60 £6, Family ticket £15 – On sale from Monday
    24th June 5pm Online

    Charlton – Up to 3,000 tickets if required
    • £15 Adult, £10 O65/U21, £5 U11 – Likely to be on sale from 2nd July
    which is when Charlton are due to go on sale

    RB Leipzig – 10 Euros per tickets – Likely to be on sale from 2nd July subject
    to agreeing the process of selling the tickets

    Ticket Allocations

    The club confirmed that away ticket allocations in the Premier League are set at minimum of
    3,000 or 10% of the stadium capacity. For Bournemouth, the club have been advised that they
    will receive 1,325 tickets. It was mentioned that rules state that clubs are liable to pay for any
    unsold tickets should less than 50% of the last allocated block be sold. Tickets will be capped
    at £30 as part of an agreement between all Premier League clubs. Concession tickets will still
    be available as per what the away club usually offer.

    Away Season Ticket Membership

    The club made a proposal for a revised Away Season Ticket Membership based on feedback
    received by fans over the course of the 2018/19 season. Feedback from those currently part
    of the membership was very positive due to the ability to have a dedicated window where they
    are guaranteed a ticket for each match and the option to select specific seats. Feedback from
    those not in the membership was that they felt there should have been a criteria in the first
    instance to join the membership and not opened up to all season ticket holders although the
    reason the club did this was based on feedback from supporters who were struggling to obtain
    tickets for away matches and felt it was fair to give all season ticket holders the opportunity to
    join the membership. The proposal was based on keeping the scheme as it is, operationally
    in that fans would could purchase the membership however the club would only invite current
    members the option to renew if they had attended 15+ away matches in the 2018/19 season.
    After the renewal period the club would the open the sale of the membership to supporters
    who were not current members but are season ticket holders who have attended 15+ away
    matches during the 2018/19 season. The membership fee was to be increased to £30 for
    renewals and £45 for new members.

    Feedback from the group suggested that the 15+ level was too low, and this should be
    increased to 18+ in order for supporters to renew their membership.

    Other clubs were discussed, namely Norwich, who have introduced a membership that their
    fans need to join in order to access away tickets. The feeling was that clubs were using these
    membership methods to extract more revenue from fans and putting up a paywall.

    It was put to the club that the membership is not really required and if away tickets sales were
    based purely on loyalty the club would still be able to guarantee certain groups of supporters’
    tickets who had relevant criteria.

    Due to the allocation at Bournemouth, the possibility of this match being excluded from the
    membership was proposed. This match could then be based purely on criteria and only those
    that have attended.

    The club suggested that we could incorporate a ballot system for a small amount of tickets (50
    was mentioned) to ensure that fans who might not be able to access tickets to away matches
    could have an opportunity to do so. Feedback from the group was that loyalty is the key factor
    when allocating away tickets and that it didn’t seem fair that fans who did not have the required
    history would have the opportunity to get tickets via a ballot despite it being a small number of
    tickets.

    Concerns over Bournemouth tickets allocation and the fairness of these tickets being
    distributed to fans. Especially if the scheme was to run as suggested as they group felt that
    tickets would not be available for those not in the membership, but they would have still
    attended the majority or every away match.

    While the group were keen to seek a resolution at the meeting, it was agreed that the group
    would reflect on what has been discussed and once the minutes have been circulated,
    feedback to the club. The club will then gather all feedback and decide based on this.

    The viable options available were agreed as:
    • Having an Away Season Ticket Membership but exclude the Bournemouth match and
    only have members accepted who have attended 18+ away league matches during
    the 2018/19 season
    or
    • Not having an Away Season Ticket Membership and basing all away ticket sales on
    loyalty at previous matches.

    Away Sales Criteria

    The club proposed to go on sale with away matches to supporters who have attended 15 away
    games, then 12 away games before opening to season ticket holders, members and then
    general sale, subject to availability. The club would then introduce criteria based on the current
    seasons matches at points during the season. Working up from 3 games to 6 games then 10
    and 13 games as we progress through the season.

    The group felt that the levels of criteria was too low and that more games from the previous
    season should be considered when creating the criteria as this would reward fans who
    regularly followed Villa on the road during the last Championship season.

    Train Travel

    The club were asked about the discounted Virgin trains travel that was introduced last season.
    It was suggested it was a good scheme and feedback was that it wasn’t promoted enough.
    The club confirmed that this wasn’t an agreement with Virgin as such, but much rather
    something that was simply put to the club and that not much was known about it. The Premier
    League have advised the club that they are looking at ways to improve and encourage train
    travel for football fans in the future.

    Crowd surging at away games

    It was mentioned about previous instances of crowd surging in the Championship. PC Bladen
    said that he doesn’t anticipate any issues at Premier League clubs as the stewarding is
    generally a lot more effective with the allocations available not really exceeding 3,000.

    Club Memberships

    The club advised that the Claret and Cub memberships will be made available for sale for the
    forthcoming season and details are to be confirmed in due course.

    Wembley Play-Off Final Tickets

    The group briefly discussed ticket sales for the play-off final. Feedback was that sales did run
    smoothly but that some fans were frustrated that what were considered better seats became
    available later in the sales process. The club confirmed that they are obligated to hold certain
    tickets for a variety or reasons such as players, players families, Owners and at the point we
    go on sale, it is not known exactly how many of these are required. Therefore, it will be the
    case that the unused tickets will go back on sale later in the sales process. Due to the very
    short timescale to sell and dispatch all of the tickets, it is not possible to plan this any better
    but appreciate supporters’ frustrations.

    No tags.

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