barrycowdrill

£2m leccy bill iirc? said somewhere else recently that whilst the stadium is and always has been fantastic, it’s a financial noose round our necks. Particularly at any level lower than the champ. Taxes, business rates, operational costs, indemnities etc are sky high. Add to the fact we have not held any big events there recently and there’s no way it covers its own cost

On the basis that they’re better doing the job they do than Dempsey which is a job I think we’ll need doing. they won’t be match fit obviously but they’ve been on the grass for 2 weeks and in full contact training. So we’ll get an hour out of them at least

IF Kenny is out, Ruben as the 10 and Simons or EE alongside Sheehan for me

The same still applies today. That’s our job, let the lads do theirs

Yeh thinking of driving myself. Fill the car get them to cover fuel between them

Flights already at £170 and train is at £120 and will soar up the night before we’ve even qualified if Stockport get through coach or drive it is. Fuck me if people can’t be arsed getting to the reebok for 8pm on a sat there’s no way they’ll be at Wembley for 1pm on a Sunday 🤣

Train defo ruled out. First one in is 11am

if and it’s a big if Kenny is done i would imagine Simon’s / EE alongside Sheehan Rodrigues pushed forward in to the 10 role behind Burstow with Dalby on the bench GJ replacing Conway

Ultimately we’re just talking about the pro’s and cons of both, personally whilst I recognise something else does need to be done (like many not sure what the answer is?) I do think a reward system would work better in the league above where on the whole allocations would be bigger and I think after the initial promotion bounce, our form and subsequent interest would plateau meaning wider access to all. I know the club have discussed why they didn’t go with a loyalty scheme before (think it was when Hart was here?) but I don’t think they ever came out with any solid rationale other than it’s been spoken about and didn’t feel it was right?

So, at this current level we’re at, say the average away allocation is 2k? from that take out the away ST number which is c.600? Then hospitality, club tickets and any other little group, you’re probably talking about 1300? Going on sale to the general fanbase our average away following this season has been 1800 (less the c.600 away ST holders) means we’ve got around 1100 of the general fanbase base going to each away game (if you then deduct the the club tickets, hospitality etc - for arguments sake I used the number of 100) Of that 1100 I would say half of that are supporters who have done double digit away games this season? But again we’ll use the average which is 15. So for half of the away games this season we would have c.550 tickets that were available to supporters who did less than double digits the numbers might be off but the principle is right in my head 🤣 Therefore pretty much 75% of an allocation goes to the same people each away game. And you left with the remaining 25% split out over the remaining supporters. appreciate there will be variances within that and some allocations are higher but many are lower but you get the jist of what I’m trying to say Now I’m not saying that those repeat attendees shouldn’t be rewarded and given the first priority however it in theory does create this closed shop element. I’ve seen it happen within the England membership scheme of which I am part of. Granted to a lesser extent with us layer in our “success” this season and it becomes a mad scramble by far more than 550 people to snap up the remaining tickets. Inevitably meaning the majority are pissed off

And that’s exactly my point, currently with broadly much lower allocations and relative success (you’d say we win 6 or 7 out of every 10) the demand is already there so alls a points system does is churn the same names out and gives no one else a look in. It becomes a restricted and insular group however, promotion, larger allocations and we go to losing / drawing 6 or 7 out of 10, interest reduces, more people have the opportunity to apply and get tickets. so rather than say i don’t know, 10% of the fanbase having all the points and going everywhere, you get a much more even spread of points which goes deeper in to the fanbase

I think it could come in if we went up as generally bigger allocations. Also if we weren’t doing as well, demand would probably decrease. Thus increasing the chances for people further down the points system

It’s a game of chance though now isn’t it. Wouldn’t be with points system until the last few remaining. It’s just guess work of course but can only really be the justification for not applying a points based approach. easy to migrate away ST holders to the top of any points based system then look at say the last 2 years worth of purchases by client ref. Operationally it isn’t a big job so there’s a fundamental reason why it’s not been adopted

You can be pissed off but now’s not really the time to be voting with your feet. It’s not an ideal KO time but how many actually are these days? I find it baffling take up hasn’t been as Brisk. It’ll be the final chance for many to back them

The problem with a points based system is to a certain degree it becomes quite elitist. The same names a faces end up getting tickets for the majority of away games and the rest slowly but surely getting access / points here and there. Similar to how the England away process works. My assumption is the club don’t want to go down that route as many fans would then become disenchanted with away games as there is little hope of getting tickets. Particularly at this level I think they’re quite content with demand outweighing supply at the minute as it keeps people “engaged” no matter how many times you miss out and complain, you’ll still try again the next time