Plymouth Tickets (H)

[tom_ecfc]

Interesting points.

This season is the first I know of in the 20 years of a Trust owned club where we've regularly sold out seats for home games so it is a new thing.
The immediate method of dealing with it is already being applied - to have the 1 ticket per person limit (previously it was 2 per person).

It would be difficult to argue to a season ticket holder that they should lose the advantage of Trust priority because of their extra commitment.

There could be other refinements. Those that spring to mind immediately are:

• The 'platinum level' you referred to in an earlier post.
• A rotation of sorts.
• A limited proportion of seats available for sale to priority members with some held back for general sale and keeping the 1 ticket per person limit whilst on general sale.

Of course, to be in Silver priority a supporter only has to join the Trust. It is true to say though that with a limited number of seats once priority numbers equal or approach that number the less effective priority there actually is.

One for the Trust to ponder going forward.

I think the 1 ticket per person seems to be a positive move, and maybe encourages more fans to sign up to the trust to ‘guarantee’ a ticket.

 

[tom_ecfc]

Ok, so ST holder and Trust member here (almost 20 years). To be frank, the primary benefit of Trust membership, for me, is priority ticket access. So for the argyle game I have been able to give my "gold" ticket to my brother whilst retaining my usual season ticket. If you were to take the benefit of ticket access away from Trust members who are also season ticket holders, then in all honestly I'd probably stop being a Trust member. If 1,000 ST / Trust members felt the same way, then the Trust would lose £24k (minimum) in one hit. Yes, there is also the priority access for away tickets, but it's very rare that's needed. Even when we get the occassional big team away in the Cup then the allocation is usually large enough that tickets are not difficult to come by.

I completely understand and is an interesting conversation the trust will have to try and please everyone.

This is nothing against you personally, but the example of giving your ‘golden’ ticket to your brother. Let’s just say your brother only attends the odd game and all of a sudden is able to get a ticket for the top matches that sell out, i.e Argyle. He seems to be able to jump the queue ahead of trust members of less than 3 years, is that fair? Again, this is hypothetical.

The trust may need to look at other advantages for trust AND ST holders that don’t impact other trust members getting tickets.

I would also be interested in the breakdown of Trust Gold, Silver etc membership to see how close this conversation needs to happen before it sneaks up on us.

 

[Leads]

Not sure if this would be workable, but I'd go for something like this:

- Gold: ST + Trust
- Silver: ST only
- Bronze: Trust only

Forget Red or Dead or the Norway Supporters' Club (sorry). Keep it simple.

 

[Grecian_Matt]

I personally don't think there should be any changes to the way tickets are allocated.
If any changes are made then there should be a Platinum tier where Season Ticket holders are given extra priority.

I really hated it when Supporters Groups got extra priority and glad when this changed.

I have been a trust member for a number of years and TBH don't even know how long, but I keep this payment going to get ticket priority - Currently Gold Member.

The only issue with ticketing priority is I know a couple of people who go week in week out and are not season ticket holders or members of the trust and won't join.
They do state that it is only big cup games (which rarely happen) that they occasionally don't get a ticket, but normally know a couple of people who can get these tickets for them.

The system in it's present state works and I would not like to see it changed.

 

[Jason H]

Not sure if this would be workable, but I'd go for something like this:

- Gold: ST + Trust
- Silver: ST only
- Bronze: Trust only

Forget Red or Dead or the Norway Supporters' Club (sorry). Keep it simple.

I think the Supporters Club thing is linked to the ECFC Supporters Club which is pretty much a local club for local people and therefore the Exiles etc. is an equivalence thing.

For away games it should be recognised that there are a lot of exiled supporters who follow the club up and down the country but aren't able to get to enough home games to justify a ST - so not sure they should therefore be a lower priority for "big" away games than someone who goes to all home games but goes to just the "big" away games. I'm not saying they should be a higher priority either, but if someone goes to Hartlepool and Carlisle but is denied the chance to go to Plym**th that isn't really fair.

Maybe merge your Silver and Bronze into one second priority group?

 

[Boyo]

I completely understand and is an interesting conversation the trust will have to try and please everyone.

This is nothing against you personally, but the example of giving your ‘golden’ ticket to your brother. Let’s just say your brother only attends the odd game and all of a sudden is able to get a ticket for the top matches that sell out, i.e Argyle. He seems to be able to jump the queue ahead of trust members of less than 3 years, is that fair? Again, this is hypothetical.

The trust may need to look at other advantages for trust AND ST holders that don’t impact other trust members getting tickets.

I would also be interested in the breakdown of Trust Gold, Silver etc membership to see how close this conversation needs to happen before it sneaks up on us.

I don't disagree, however when demand is higher than supply, many that miss out will inevitably think that the system is unfair. Is it fair that anyone can book a seat in hospitality and get a good seat, without ever attending a game before? If you remove the extra ticket for ST holders, is it fair that they should pay £24 to be a Trust member but have inferior privileges compared to people that only attend the odd game?

 

[Leads]

The only issue with ticketing priority is I know a couple of people who go week in week out and are not season ticket holders or members of the trust and won't join.

Why is this, out of interest? If they go week in, week out then it can't be a financial decision (£2 a month...), plus they would actually save money if they were a STH? Do they have some objection to the concept of either having a season ticket or being part of the Trust- I'm genuinely quite interested.

 

[Leads]

I think the Supporters Club thing is linked to the ECFC Supporters Club which is pretty much a local club for local people and therefore the Exiles etc. is an equivalence thing.

For away games it should be recognised that there are a lot of exiled supporters who follow the club up and down the country but aren't able to get to enough home games to justify a ST - so not sure they should therefore be a lower priority for "big" away games than someone who goes to all home games but goes to just the "big" away games. I'm not saying they should be a higher priority either, but if someone goes to Hartlepool and Carlisle but is denied the chance to go to Plym**th that isn't really fair.

Maybe merge your Silver and Bronze into one second priority group?

All good points! A way around this would be having some kind of points system that other clubs have in operation, however I imagine the admin involved wouldn't really make it feasible. By and large I would say it works pretty well, I've never failed to get a ticket for a game. I've got a sudden rush of nostalgia for the 'old' days- I remember taking the morning off school to physically queue for Oxford away tickets for that play off game!

 

[tom_ecfc]

Any update on how many home Argyle tickets left for the Silver and below priority groups?

Remember Silver priority members can order tickets for our remaining home games from 12 today!

 

[MJP_Exeter]

Most annoyingly i cannot make this game as my son has an under 8s match kicking off at 1030am. So will skate back quickly and watch on i follow hooked upto my tv.