Long Journeys To Home Games

I used to car share from Herefordshire with another mad Boro fan and do the 500 mile trip in one day, but it get tougher as you get older. I felt I could not afford to time to stay overnight. Now I as I don't work full time I can do long weekends. My car sharing Boro Friend does the train in a day or stays over if 2 homes games close together. Yesterday I walking Guisborough Woods and Monday it was Great Ayton/Roseberry T/Gribbdale. Also visits and support to an elderly parent in a nursing home, on Teesside.

If 3 of you are travelling in a car you have some flexibility to break trips up. so stay in York or Peak District on the Saturday night or when travelling say back.

You might want to explore the train, because the East Coast Line is fast and from North Kent there is the Eurostar service which is only around 35 minutes to Kings Cross/St Pancras to Medway Towns so in theory Medway to Boro on the train could be around 4 hours (opposed to 5.5 hour drive). Need to book well ahead and get senior card or travelling together cards. Of course if you book ahead by more than 4 weeks the game could be moved by Sky.

Although MFC say the season tickets are non transferable they must know it goes on and for fans at the other end of the country its understandable. You might find someone you trust to share the cost and share games, specifically someone who lives on Teesside. The cost of the season tickets is significant to someone on an average salary, but sometimes you need to consider how important it is, say if you are earning £10k a year more because you are working in the SE, you could argue £1200 for 3 season tickets comes from that money. Season ticket money is a direct investment in MFC and is 95% spent on players wages i.e. the more season tickets the better the player in the squad.

Also consider number of away matches in the South that you needed a season ticket to get a ticket. This season it was really Millwall, Fulham and will be Bournemouth - Peterboro, QPR, Reading, Bristol City all easily bought on general sale. Fulham and Bournemouth are likely to swap with Norwich and Watford.
 
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I am in Louth, Lincolnshire which is about 2.5 hours each way, so not dreadful, but it is approaching half a tank of diesel, which when you factor in tickets for my son and I, food and drink, it is becoming more of a treat than a habit. Shame as he would go every week if he could.
 
The most frustrating thing is that the club seems to go out of their way to make it more expensive/difficult to be a fan if you don't live close enough to justify a season ticket. If I want to go to a home match I have to pay the over-inflated walk-up prices on top of the travel. If I want to buy anything from the club shop I have to pay the scandalous delivery prices. I can't always go to the away matches that are convenient for me because they are often sold out before I get a chance so I don't even have a chance to build up any priority points. I can't even listen to the match on the radio without giving the club some money.

I would love to live close enough to justify a season ticket but I don't. I have to pick and choose when I can make the journey but it always feels like I am being ripped off.
 
afcb_acklam said:
I met my boro-bird online several years ago. We spent two years doing alternate weekends, driving between bormuff & boro. Racked up some miles, but all very enjoyable. She's down here now..... waiting for the day we move to boro!
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A mate did it from Exeter to Redcar in 4 hrs 20 minutes, we did set of after midnight and stopped twice and went slow around Birmingham because of the cameras.
 
Nano said:
The most frustrating thing is that the club seems to go out of their way to make it more expensive/difficult to be a fan if you don't live close enough to justify a season ticket. If I want to go to a home match I have to pay the over-inflated walk-up prices on top of the travel. If I want to buy anything from the club shop I have to pay the scandalous delivery prices. I can't always go to the away matches that are convenient for me because they are often sold out before I get a chance so I don't even have a chance to build up any priority points. I can't even listen to the match on the radio without giving the club some money.

I would love to live close enough to justify a season ticket but I don't. I have to pick and choose when I can make the journey but it always feels like I am being ripped off.
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I agree with you.
Gibson seems to have a model based purely around season ticket sales
The Boro pride card was a great idea and it’s a shame it fell by the wayside
At least the priority points scheme seems to have worked - i managed to get spurs/Chelsea tickets on the basis of going to a handful of home games over the past few years.
 
Can’t a few of you chip-in for a few season tickets that’s You could share? Obviously it may be tricky re favoured games etc but it could work out?
Also OP if you bought a ST and didn’t use it a few times maybe the mate you stay with could let someone else use it on those days?
I say give it a go- if you have the wheels etc and are able to plan a few mini-trips en route it could be a great experience. Sounds like one of those things you may regret not doing and as others said , don’t feel guilty about missing anything
 
I think I have mentioned this on another thread. I drove from to every home game and a lot of away games from Hampshire. In 11 seasons, I only missed one home game and that included all the Euro and Cup matches. I went through 3 cars from new. So you have to be either dedicated or a complete lunatic. I drive from Beverley now which I have done since 2007 and still rack up nearly 200 miles a round trip.
I have a mate from the Loftus area who now lives near Camberley in Surrey and he drives to a lot of home and away games.
If it’s in the blood, it happens!!
 
Yes, I’m erring towards giving it a go for a season. There’s nothing like being there and I find going to just the odd game frustrating, even if we lose I think I wish I could go to the next one.

If we get promoted there’s loads of away games we could get to easily too.
 
Beverleyred said:
I think I have mentioned this on another thread. I drove from to every home game and a lot of away games from Hampshire. In 11 seasons, I only missed one home game and that included all the Euro and Cup matches. I went through 3 cars from new. So you have to be either dedicated or a complete lunatic. I drive from Beverley now which I have done since 2007 and still rack up nearly 200 miles a round trip.
I have a mate from the Loftus area who now lives near Camberley in Surrey and he drives to a lot of home and away games.
If it’s in the blood, it happens!!
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That's some effort!
The number of home games during our Euro spell was huge.
You must have had very flexible work!
 
NorthumberlandBoro said:
That's some effort!
The number of home games during our Euro spell was huge.
You must have had very flexible work!
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Thanks mate, yeah in the main I was able to work from home, as at that time I was a Director of my jointly owned Company.
With football and work meetings, I would regularly put 70 or 80k miles on a my car every year! You don’t tend to think anything of it at the time, but looking back you think ‘really’ I must have been stark raving mad!!
 
Beverleyred said:
Thanks mate, yeah in the main I was able to work from home, as at that time I was a Director of my jointly owned Company.
With football and work meetings, I would regularly put 70 or 80k miles on a my car every year! You don’t tend to think anything of it at the time, but looking back you think ‘really’ I must have been stark raving mad!!
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Wow, I do 30K per year and feel like I do too much driving.
 
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