Luton Town allocation

[Mad Raschic Ken]

As I've said before, the FA's system for England tickets is excellent. Something similar would be good. At the very least they should remove older points. On the FA's system, membership periods last two years (i.e. from tournament to tournament) and only games from the current and one previous membership period count. Anything prior to that is wiped out. There is also a ballot element, giving everyone the opportunity to get tickets - although obviously that would take some organising.

I have well over 12,000 points and, realistically, if I wanted i could just cherry pick the big away games for years now as long as I buy a season ticket. Whereas a younger fan starting out would struggle to every get anywhere near enough points to get tickets for the biggest games.

It's not a fair system and it should be changed - even if it is in my personal interests to keep it as it is.

[Dorking .Eagle]

Are the fixtures with perceived issues are Brentford, Bournemouth and Luton aways? (possibly also somewhere like AFC Wimbledon if we got them in the FA Cup?)

Because everywhere else this season, even Plymouth, season ticket holders have been able to even buy a 2nd ticket.

Indeed the ticket sales in the away end at Man United are probably less than the away end at Luton.

People whose points effectively 'guarantee' them the likes of Brentford, Bournemouth etc are those on what 9,000 pts plus?

I'd suspect that even if you wiped points back to just the last 5, 4 or 3 years only it'd pretty much be the same people on the top points levels?

A continuous season ticket holder since 2012/13 who didn't do aways would have 'just' 6000 (from 12 seasons x 500pts) so couldn't stroll up and buy for the very top games (unless they had also done approx 8-10 aways each season for 12 years as well)

England does have a good system for what are ALWAYS heavily oversubscribed away games - go to ALL the England homes for 2-3 years and you'll start qualifying for some aways.

At Palace in comparison the majority of away games are accessible to any season ticket holder. For the handful of 'golden ticket' games, that is what the points system is in place for.

If there truly are Palace fans going to the likes of Man United away twice in 5 days etc yet aren't in the away s/t scheme, which would ensure them a ticket for the likes of Luton, then they really should be in that scheme really.

I'll be interested in who puts themselves forwards for the FAB committee place (as 'regular away fan' representative) and what each of the candidates for the position propose in terms of reform (if anything).

[Norwich_Eagle]

Originally Posted by Dorking .Eagle

Are the fixtures with perceived issues are Brentford, Bournemouth and Luton aways? (possibly also somewhere like AFC Wimbledon if we got them in the FA Cup?)

Because everywhere else this season, even Plymouth, season ticket holders have been able to even buy a 2nd ticket.

Indeed the ticket sales in the away end at Man United are probably less than the away end at Luton.

People whose points effectively 'guarantee' them the likes of Brentford, Bournemouth etc are those on what 9,000 pts plus?

I'd suspect that even if you wiped points back to just the last 5, 4 or 3 years only it'd pretty much be the same people on the top points levels?

A continuous season ticket holder since 2012/13 who didn't do aways would have 'just' 6000 (from 12 seasons x 500pts) so couldn't stroll up and buy for the very top games (unless they had also done approx 8-10 aways each season for 12 years as well)

England does have a good system for what are ALWAYS heavily oversubscribed away games - go to ALL the England homes for 2-3 years and you'll start qualifying for some aways.

At Palace in comparison the majority of away games are accessible to any season ticket holder. For the handful of 'golden ticket' games, that is what the points system is in place for.

If there truly are Palace fans going to the likes of Man United away twice in 5 days etc yet aren't in the away s/t scheme, which would ensure them a ticket for the likes of Luton, then they really should be in that scheme really.

I'll be interested in who puts themselves forwards for the FAB committee place (as 'regular away fan' representative) and what each of the candidates for the position propose in terms of reform (if anything).

Yes that is my understanding of it. There are numerous people like myself who had season tickets before the Premier League, have retained a season ticket throughout the Premier League and travelled to the Away days firstly because it was the first opportunity in many years and then other teams have come up that have been more exciting and restrictive away days.

The club need to be doing more to get sell-outs at away games where tickets are perceived to be difficult because of the name rather than looking at the smaller allocations.

Tickets for Man. U., Man. C., Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, West Ham etc. are always going quite deep into the selling phases.

Brighton is just difficult but not because of a lack of interest.

Brentford, Bournemouth and this season Luton are difficult because of small allocations.

Resetting the points every x amount of years won't fix that without something else as well.

[Mad Raschic Ken]

Originally Posted by Dorking .Eagle

At Palace in comparison the majority of away games are accessible to any season ticket holder. For the handful of 'golden ticket' games, that is what the points system is in place for.

I'm not sure that's really true is it? The London away games, plus Brighton and the three that you mentioned all usually require a fair few points to get a ticket I think (I haven't looked back, so could be wrong). You can probably add Forest and Liverpool to that too. So that's over half the games.

Let's say an 18 year old buys his first season ticket this season. He gets 500 points. He goes to every away game he can get a ticket for - let's say (generously) that's 12 games and, given they are mostly northern games he gets 40 points per game, so that's 980 points for the season in total.

In ten years he has 9,800 points.

Meanwhile, I have 12,500 points. I decide I've had enough of trekking around the country and decide I only really fancy the London games plus Brighton and Luton. So that's 8 aways at 20 points each. So, including a ST it's 680 per season. In ten years I have 19,300 points.

So, over the next decade, he goes to all the games he can get a ticket for, including all the least popular ones and I just go to the big ones. I'm still almost 10,000 points ahead of him, just because I started first.

How's that fair on the kid who's just started?

[Norwich_Eagle]

Originally Posted by Mad Raschic Ken

I'm not sure that's really true is it? The London away games, plus Brighton and the three that you mentioned all usually require a fair few points to get a ticket I think (I haven't looked back, so could be wrong). You can probably add Forest and Liverpool to that too. So that's over half the games.

Let's say an 18 year old buys his first season ticket this season. He gets 500 points. He goes to every away game he can get a ticket for - let's say (generously) that's 12 games and, given they are mostly northern games he gets 40 points per game, so that's 980 points for the season in total.

In ten years he has 9,800 points.

Meanwhile, I have 12,500 points. I decide I've had enough of trekking around the country and decide I only really fancy the London games plus Brighton and Luton. So that's 8 aways at 20 points each. So, including a ST it's 680 per season. In ten years I have 19,300 points.

So, over the next decade, he goes to all the games he can get a ticket for, including all the least popular ones and I just go to the big ones. I'm still almost 10,000 points ahead of him, just because I started first.

How's that fair on the kid who's just started?

They may start off with a lot of points but they go quite far down the selling lists recently. Things like the cost of living crisis etc. are going to have a serious effect on how many people can literally afford to go to games so they are going further down the chain. Then things like the train strikes and what not are also having an effect.

[Dorking .Eagle]

Indeed - the likes of Man United away is pretty much available to any Palace fan, as long as they buy a membership.

And indeed a season ticket holder or member can often bring a friend along to quite a % of the away games (where it goes to the 'second ticket' phase)

It means tickets for the majority of our games are still accessible.

That's not completely a bad thing is it?

[Dorking .Eagle]

Originally Posted by Mad Raschic Ken

I'm not sure that's really true is it? The London away games, plus Brighton and the three that you mentioned all usually require a fair few points to get a ticket I think (I haven't looked back, so could be wrong). You can probably add Forest and Liverpool to that too. So that's over half the games.

Let's say an 18 year old buys his first season ticket this season. He gets 500 points. He goes to every away game he can get a ticket for - let's say (generously) that's 12 games and, given they are mostly northern games he gets 40 points per game, so that's 980 points for the season in total.

In ten years he has 9,800 points.

Meanwhile, I have 12,500 points. I decide I've had enough of trekking around the country and decide I only really fancy the London games plus Brighton and Luton. So that's 8 aways at 20 points each. So, including a ST it's 680 per season. In ten years I have 19,300 points.

So, over the next decade, he goes to all the games he can get a ticket for, including all the least popular ones and I just go to the big ones. I'm still almost 10,000 points ahead of him, just because I started first.

How's that fair on the kid who's just started?

If 'that kid' is literally going to 'every away game they can get tickets for' then they should really get an away season ticket. They were (briefly) open to all season ticket holders. There were some youngsters on twitter almost every other day this summer asking when the away s/t's were going to be made available and when they were they snapped one up.

Then as an away s/t holder his points total would be irrelevant as he is guaranteed a ticket to every game.

[Mad Raschic Ken]

Originally Posted by Dorking .Eagle

If 'that kid' is literally going to 'every away game they can get tickets for' then they should really get an away season ticket. They were (briefly) open to all season ticket holders. There were some youngsters on twitter almost every other day this summer asking when the away s/t's were going to be made available and when they were they snapped one up.

Then as an away s/t holder his points total would be irrelevant as he is guaranteed a ticket to every game.

Sure - that's an option, although given the number of us with those tickets now I suspect that they will limit their availability more in future seasons.

I still don't see why any of us on high points levels would object to having older points removed. As long as we keep going, we remain in pole position for away tickets anyway. The only people who would be impacted would be those that built high points levels in the earlier years and go less often these days.

Fundamentally, I don't think it's fair that I have way more points than a younger fan just because I am older and was able to go to games a decade ago. If only 2-3 seasons counted then the likes of us could only stay ahead of the game by continuing to go regularly. Otherwise we'd start to drop down the pecking order, which would be fair.

[Norwich_Eagle]

Just to give some indication as to what the points were last season and for the first three away games of this season I have crunched the numbers.

Points were most needed for:

Bournemouth, Fulham and Brentford

Then:

Forest, Brentford last season and Sheffield United

7,500 to start for:

Liverpool, Man. C., Newcastle & Brighton

All other games bar Leicester were starting at 7,000

[Palace43]

Think it'll either be 9,000 or 9,500 for Luton then.

[Norwich_Eagle]

Originally Posted by Palace43

Think it'll either be 9,000 or 9,500 for Luton then.

I believe that the allocation is similar to that of Bournemouth (KR is now slightly larger) so I would estimate 9,000 to start yeah.

[Palaceboy222]

Originally Posted by Norwich_Eagle

I believe that the allocation is similar to that of Bournemouth (KR is now slightly larger) so I would estimate 9,000 to start yeah.

Since Bournemouth we’ve had:

9x 2022/23 aways (180 points based on 20 per game)
1x 2022/23 home fa cup game (20 points)
4x 2023/24 away games (2 x 20 points + 2x 40 points = 120 points)
Season ticket (500 points)
Season ticket+ (250 points)

We still have the two United games, Newcastle and Burnley before Luton (100 - 160 points)

So that’s extra 1,230 potential points. I can’t see them adding more than 1,000 onto the total as very few will have done all that although some will have spent in the club shop. Assuming we’re using Bournemouth to calculate, 9,500 looks like the top end unless they add some on for the excitement/novelty of it being the first time there in 19 years.

As already said, the trend so far is to be 500 more than last year so based on Bournemouth that would be 9,000. However, Vila and Brentford were nearer the end of the season.