So is it just one match a season that you would advocate this system for - just Sunderland?
No, a small percentage of tickets should be set aside for any game that could sell out.
Rob - I put this on page 5 but you and JM14 seemed to ignore it.
There is no doubting that the priority points systems helps our club manage ticket allocations and I agree that at present it is the fairest way of allocating tickets at this moment in time. Priority points also come with potential drawbacks that need to be carefully considered by the club and fans groups.
The club needs to strike a balance between rewarding loyalty and ensuring accessibility and fairness for all supporters and this where the 20% of tickets was suggested to go on general sale, which I believe is too high and should be closer to 10%. Would 100 tickets in every 1,000 be a bad thing?
As a club, we need to be carful that we aren’t putting newer or walk up fans at a disadvantage and create inequality among supporters, with those who are less able to attend matches feeling marginalised or excluded from attending. Already, many fans perceive it as difficult to accumulate enough points to access tickets for high-demand games, creating an ‘us and them’ that can be clearly seen on this thread. In any other walk of life we wouldn’t tolerate it.
Some of us may have the resources or flexibility around work, college, etc. to attend away matches and I take my hat off to their commitment. I feel that the present set up also puts pressure on fans to buy tickets for games that they are not going to attend. We’ve seen several fans on here trying to sell tickets for games they had no intention of attending and only buying them to accumulate the points.
I read that Newcastle block a number of away tickets and fans have to prove they are the person named on the ticket. Failure to do so makes the ticket void and sanctions put in place for the ticket purchaser and the points accumulated for that ticket deducted. Something that could be easily replicated by the Boro.
The opening post by BigUnit is only a suggestion and from what I have read on here, many feel it is a personal attack on them and their right to have first choice of tickets. This is not the case, it about allowing others to have a seat at the table. Is putting a limited allocation of tickets open to a ballot for those who do not meet the away points threshold really a bad thing?