New club membership

[Traf]

I got signed up and bought tickets in pretty much no time, but the more I read about other people’s struggles, the bigger the pile of steaming horseshit this whole episode becomes.

[Ani]

4 hours ago, Burndens Bogs said:

Yeh that’s the deal, once you’re a ST holder or a member it’s a piece of piss.

Funny enough i also lived in Smithills back then, we used to leave the Ainsworth arms at 2.45, drive to the ground, park at BOC car showroom for free and still be in the ground before the players ran out - then after the game we’d be back in the boozer by 5.05 - Those were the days, life was less of a faff.

Whoops double post 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Ani

[Ani]

1 minute ago, Traf said:

I got signed up and bought tickets in pretty much no time, but the more I read about other people’s struggles, the bigger the pile of steaming horseshit this whole episode becomes.

Asking for emails for kids is a badly thought out idea. The fact is football fans are more likely to go out of their way to buy something, it is not as though you can switch to another brand. But the club can not take it for granted, hopefully they will listen and come up with a better solution  

[Zico]

4 minutes ago, Ani said:

Asking for emails for kids is a badly thought out idea. The fact is football fans are more likely to go out of their way to buy something, it is not as though you can switch to another brand. But the club can not take it for granted, hopefully they will listen and come up with a better solution  

I think part of the problem might be that bwfc don't own the ticketing system, and use a 3rd party 

And have then decided mid season at short notice to demand everyone signs up 

To which the 3rd party (Ticketmaster isn't it?) Have said fine, but our system demands an email address per member 

They certainly won't be changing their systems 

Not something that should've been implemented mid season

[Leyther_Matt]

10 minutes ago, Ani said:

Asking for emails for kids is a badly thought out idea. The fact is football fans are more likely to go out of their way to buy something, it is not as though you can switch to another brand. But the club can not take it for granted, hopefully they will listen and come up with a better solution  

 

1 minute ago, Zico said:

I think part of the problem might be that bwfc don't own the ticketing system, and use a 3rd party 

And have then decided mid season at short notice to demand everyone signs up 

To which the 3rd party (Ticketmaster isn't it?) Have said fine, but our system demands an email address per member 

They certainly won't be changing their systems 

Not something that should've been implemented mid season

I don’t think it would be as much of an issue if it was made clearer that you can use the same email address for both yourself and any kids. GDPR laws mean the club aren’t allowed to add any U18s to mailing lists anyway. 

[Zico]

17 minutes ago, Leyther_Matt said:

 

I don’t think it would be as much of an issue if it was made clearer that you can use the same email address for both yourself and any kids. GDPR laws mean the club aren’t allowed to add any U18s to mailing lists anyway. 

The club probably don't know about the email address issue as it's not their system 

Ticketmaster or whoever don't need to make it clear 

All assumption on my part like 

But if that's right about GDPR then some young uns are going to soon find out that signing up to be a member doesn't, as promised, mean better communication with fans 

In fact this whole episode seems to have fallen at the first hurdle of communication, with the assumption that everyone is online and knows what they need to do to get to the game

[Burndens Bogs]

41 minutes ago, Ani said:

Right , mists of time and all that, but under 15 minutes from Ainsworth to park and get the game would be impressive. 
What age are you btw ? My dad and his mates were regulars in there for years. 

Lets just say, i’m a mature ish gent.😀

Ok,  it was probably more like 2.40 leave the pub, 10 mins drive tops to BOC down St Petes, 7 mins brisk walk to Burnden,  settled in the Manny Rd North for 2.57pm. Week in, week out - pizza piss.

[Ratwhite]

9 hours ago, Traf said:

I got signed up and bought tickets in pretty much no time, but the more I read about other people’s struggles, the bigger the pile of steaming horseshit this whole episode becomes.

It's not the signing up, it's the purchasing, linking and assigning of tickets.

Oh, and the fact myngrandson needs an email (8 years old) 😳

[Rudy]

If the supporters trust had anything about them they’d be on the blower today sorry if this out 

[Duck Egg]

We've had brilliant support this season with home crowds far in excess of what you'd usually expect us to get, midtable in the 3rd division. 

We stand to lose a lot of goodwill and momentum with the large core of casual support.

Feels like we've really kicked ourselves in the nuts with this. 

[Rudy]

6 minutes ago, Duck Egg said:

We've had brilliant support this season with home crowds far in excess of what you'd usually expect us to get, midtable in the 3rd division. 

We stand to lose a lot of goodwill and momentum with the large core of casual support.

Feels like we've really kicked ourselves in the nuts with this. 

Needs sorting today 

[burnden]

Iles has put a piece out on it in todays bolton news , ironically you need to be a bolton news member/subscriber to read it (i'm not so dunno what it says )

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/19701322.special-report-bolton-wanderers-controversial-membership-scheme-explained/

[L/H White]

10 minutes ago, burnden said:

Iles has put a piece out on it in todays bolton news , ironically you need to be a bolton news member/subscriber to read it (i'm not so dunno what it says )

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/19701322.special-report-bolton-wanderers-controversial-membership-scheme-explained/

Get Mounts to copy and paste it for us

[Roger_Dubuis]

41 minutes ago, burnden said:

Iles has put a piece out on it in todays bolton news , ironically you need to be a bolton news member/subscriber to read it (i'm not so dunno what it says )

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/19701322.special-report-bolton-wanderers-controversial-membership-scheme-explained/

There isn't an article in Monday's Bolton News about the membership scheme, just a few sentences in the match report about the crowd being lower because of it

[Leyther_Matt]

11 hours ago, Zico said:

The club probably don't know about the email address issue as it's not their system 

Ticketmaster or whoever don't need to make it clear 

All assumption on my part like 

But if that's right about GDPR then some young uns are going to soon find out that signing up to be a member doesn't, as promised, mean better communication with fans 

In fact this whole episode seems to have fallen at the first hurdle of communication, with the assumption that everyone is online and knows what they need to do to get to the game

They will have a direct line to Ticketmaster's system development/account manager so easy enough to raise the suggestion once folk are mentioning having difficulty with that on social media etc

[ErnestTurnip]

If they roll it out properly next season I'm guessing it will end up being linked to photo ID as well?

Think Liverpool do it and although darrener went a bit tin foil for a minute seems Villa wanted a photo because of Covid reasons (at least that's what they said at the time).

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2020/october/Upload-your-photo-to-your-ticketing-account/

[Leyther_Matt]

6 minutes ago, ErnestTurnip said:

If they roll it out properly next season I'm guessing it will end up being linked to photo ID as well?

Think Liverpool do it and although darrener went a bit tin foil for a minute seems Villa wanted a photo because of Covid reasons (at least that's what they said at the time).

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2020/october/Upload-your-photo-to-your-ticketing-account/

When rugby games were hosted during social distancing during the summer, pretty much every club required photo ID to go alongside the ticket from a track & trace point of view, but it was out of the window once restrictions were relaxed.

[Cheese]

1 hour ago, burnden said:

Iles has put a piece out on it in todays bolton news , ironically you need to be a bolton news member/subscriber to read it (i'm not so dunno what it says )

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/19701322.special-report-bolton-wanderers-controversial-membership-scheme-explained/

It doesn't shed much light really. Some extracts:

Quote

Back on October 25, chief executive Neil Hart launched the membership scheme claiming it would have “many benefits”.

It is no coincidence that just nine days earlier, trouble had flared between supporters of Bolton Wanderers and Wigan during a League One game.

Arrests were made outside the stadium for public order offences and for the assault of a police officer.

Several fans were ejected from the ground during the course of the afternoon but The Bolton News understands that identifying many of the trouble makers became practically impossible, due to the way tickets were purchased.

The club issued a statement on October 26 claiming it had banned nine supporters, who must agree to meet with club safeguarding staff and stewarding teams before they will be allowed entry to the stadium again.

The incident followed problems at the end of last season, in which large crowds gathered outside the stadium for a behind-closed-doors game against Exeter City in which Bolton could have secured promotion.

A small number of supporters broke into the building after the final whistle and set off smoke bombs in the concourse.

Findings from the Home Office show that, as of August 1, 47 bans had been dished out to Whites fans over the course of the 2020/21 season, which was an additional 14 on top of the 33 already in place after the 2019/20 season. This came at a time when no supporters were allowed into the building because of the pandemic.

The rise in trouble at Bolton, coupled with the inadequacies of the previous ticketing system, have forced the club into action to avoid police costs escalating further than they currently stand.

It is understood that GMP strongly recommended the extra security measure of a membership scheme, having privately expressed concerns.

The most recent available figures show that Wanderers spent £151,690 on policing in the 2018/19 season, as a Championship club.

While the scheme itself may be logical, the timing of the move has been called into serious question, and many supporters have been left confused by the launch – which was effectively achieved by a singular statement on the official website.

 

[Morizio]

Says enough to me

[Max Cherry]

23 minutes ago, Morizio said:

Says enough to me

Yeah more than we'd been told up front. Police and associated costs behind it.

Getting people banned from ground when everyone was already banned is quite an achievement tho!

[Zico]

1 hour ago, Leyther_Matt said:

They will have a direct line to Ticketmaster's system development/account manager so easy enough to raise the suggestion once folk are mentioning having difficulty with that on social media etc

experience tells me that whilst it's easy to raise a ticket, you will be waiting quite some time before someone gets round to actioning it

[Mounts Kipper]

2 hours ago, Cheese said:

It doesn't shed much light really. Some extracts:

 

That’s about 5k per game in policing costs, that’s 200 pay on the day tickets, extra policing costs seem a dubious reason for membership based on those figures. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Mounts Kipper

[Horwich]

They have been shipping security in from all over the northwest in the last few games. That cant be cheap.

[Leyther_Matt]

17 minutes ago, Horwich said:

They have been shipping security in from all over the northwest in the last few games. That cant be cheap.

Same at every club at the minute. Chronic lack of stewards post-Covid. They’re probably all delivery drivers now. 

[Zico]

3 hours ago, Cheese said:

It doesn't shed much light really. Some extracts:

 

TBF, that's informative in that it wasn't just a one off with the Wigan game, and things had been on the rise for a while