SAFC - Fan Ban & Ticket Cancellations

[Raich Carter]

i don't sort our away tickets out but is that not correct as in the person you're buying them for needs to be linked/assigned/in a strong relationship with the person who is buying the tickets?
i might be wrong like and happy to be corrected.

Aye but I’m me!

 

[humbug]

I’m pretty sure it’s been said earlier in the thread that there had been complaints

given there's been a lot of claims of people making things up and people wanting evidence for any claims i thought i'd ask.

Aye but I’m me!

ahh right, you were buying for yourself? apologies, a case of crossed wires. i just leave that side of stuff to the mrs

 

[Wakey ftm in Sussex]

stamping out is one thing

banning the bloke who runs the branch for 3 years is way, way, way over the top

As someone said earlier, it should have been a planned exercise by the club, to commence at the season end.

A couple of months to communicate, consult & sort it out - with clear rules & appropriate sanctions.

Instead they’ve ( certain individuals) painted themselves into a corner, clearly recognising their own errors but not having the barls to hold up their hands.

IMHO

 

[Things Change]

Will there not be people within a branch that also miss out by one point?

Way to split hairs. Total straw man shite that marra.

 

[viccarlton]

Way to split hairs. Total straw man shite that marra.

I have no hairs to split marra

 

[Zak's Dad]

Will there not be people within a branch that also miss out by one point?

Yes there will.

But I think that's the point.

They both might miss out if it went on sale, but they would both have an opportunity to purchase it if it went on sale.

The level of points doesn't guarantee you a ticket, it gives you the chance of buying a ticket in the same phase when it goes on sale from the club.

If the branch consistently uses high points tickets to guarantee being able to buy tickets in earlier phases so it can distribute them to people within branch?
The number of points held by the outsider or branch member becomes irrelevant.

Which I think is the reason why people are requesting a more transparent purchase system.

 

[dancingradio]

Sounds like AI crap response

They defo have AI robo responses going out to ask safc querys

 

[Father Jack Hackett]

Yes there will.

But I think that's the point.

They both might miss out if it went on sale, but they would both have an opportunity to purchase it if it went on sale.

The level of points doesn't guarantee you a ticket, it gives you the chance of buying a ticket in the same phase when it goes on sale from the club.

If the branch consistently uses high points tickets to guarantee being able to buy tickets in earlier phases so it can distribute them to people within branch?
The number of points held by the outsider or branch member becomes irrelevant.

Which I think is the reason why people are requesting a more transparent purchase system.

Again, only now we’re in the big league

 

[Henry_Hill]

If these people moaning about not getting tickets went to 15 or 16 away games and the home cup games over the last 3 seasons .they probs would have had 45 to 55 points this season .but no you have tossers who want ballots others that say a percentage of tickets go to people with low points .u tell that to fans who have spent 6 to 7 grand in the last 3 years building them up.this has Been a vendetta by the ticket office manager or above him to try and make a quick headline about safc fan stealing fans tickers.3 weeks later and thousands of posts and this still not going away

The fans who have travelled over the years and built up the points should have the priority, cant see why thats an issue for some

 

[SAFC_FTM]

They defo have AI robo responses going out to ask safc querys

I'm still waiting on a reply about a ticket issue, been 6 days so far.

 

[Henry_Hill]

After 150 pages it's hardly surprising it's not easy trying to get a proper handle on things and whilst I don't want to add to that, there is a 'grey' area that hasn't been discussed more generally.

At pretty much every club there are supporters clubs - usually based upon a location and long-standing set-up, when a large group from a town or village would organise travel via a coach / minibus. I know quite a few people who are involved in branches at the bigger clubs, i.e. those who easily sell their away allocation. They mostly operate the same.

Clubs have historically (in my opinion) 'allowed' such branches to operate under slightly different rules for (I think) 2 reasons.

Firstly because the volunteers who run these clubs do a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of getting tickets purchased, allocated and - subsequently - travel sorted. All the club have to do is sell by the easiest method possible and the team on the pitch benefit from the 'loyal' away following this helps create (try telling your mates who've travelled all over the country with, every two weeks, that you 'don't fancy' Shrewsbury on a midweek night and you'll soon lose face with them). When you go to almost every game with your group, it's the day-out that you go for when the football is crap (a blessing given our recent history).

The second big reason was that such groups tend to 'police' the younger / more rowdy element. No-one wants the whole group to be tainted by dickheads causing bother at a service station or in the local boozers & the consequences that come with that (a match ban if the lad who's taken your ticket acts the prick inside the ground soon focuses the mind, too).

In the modern era none of this is as straightforward as it used to be - whether that be around travel plans, or locality of members - but branches still operate in bringing fans together (sometimes, like in our overseas branches, to meet and watch the game together in a pub).

So, here's the nub of it. In the past, clubs have turned a blind eye to tickets being shared amongst the group, in whatever way works for that group. If 53 tickets are purchased en-masse using eligible ID's (a process our clubs policy allows thru the friends and family scheme) then the branch secretary gets on with the rest of it, safe in the knowledge that if it's over-subscribed he'll find a taker for a ticket even if someone drops out late, thus no-one being out of pocket.

I've been a part of such branches, and I've been a 'lone' supporter where you know the lad next to you might have benefited from taking a ticket off his mate because he just happens to be from a certain village in Co. Durham.

Not only have SAFC been complicit in this for many, many years... they've actively used the branch* in question here as something of a fallback position when it's suited them.

There's loads of examples, inc. getting a ticket in the away end for a 'VIP', or a PR exercise or - has happened at Luton a couple of year back, when they've messed up and realised there's 150 unsold tickets that they've needed to get rid of with less than 24 hours notice. At that point branch secretaries become the clubs best mates.

But we now have a different Chief Operations Officer and a different Ticket Office Manager. It would appear that these people are the belt and braces type and when 3 Leeds tickets have been found to be in the hands of people other than the named purchaser, they've asked the branch secretary for a 'word'.

Having been given honest answers, they've decided it's 'widespread misuse' of their process, and then imposed a ban on him across 3 seasons, as well as removing 65 derby tickets from others for no other reason that their branch* secretary made the purchase on their behalf (using their fairly acquired loyalty points). The club have since "recognised that some supporters have been affected through no fault of their own", but that hardly helps soften the blow, does it?

This episode shows the club in a very bad light. The lad they've scapegoated is one of the nicest and most helpful (and incredibly loyal) of supporters you'll ever meet. This action completely undermines the whole 'connected with fans' ethos they peddle to us in their marketing.

It's also throws up the incompetence of our ticket operations generally, as well as the question of where this all takes us, as fans, in the future. Are all branches going to be subjected to the same scrutiny? Can all supporters expect a draconian & heavy-handed sanction if they are complicit in a ticket being passed on between 2 SAFC supporters?

I believe there has been some concern in the club about the integrity of some supporters membership data held on the ticket portal, and who is 'authorised' to make changes on another's account under data protection, etc. Again, all this does is throw up questions about the clubs policy and processes (nb: there are over 200k membership numbers out there). I'm sure we've all seen people asking for membership ID's with a purchase history so that tickets can be purchased for certain home games this season. It's exactly the same thing.

The club could have reviewed all this properly (likely with the help of this branch* secretary, as they've done in the past) and taken the chance to involve supporters groups in designing a new, more joined-up process. They could have looked at their own part in the fiasco, i.e. the ticket offices inability to deal with even the most-straightforward of fans issues, which encourages fans to find their own solutions.

But they went in 2-footed and he we are. It begs the question whether being (hopefully) an established PL club, with designs on European football, will see the chasm between fans and club become greater, not less - as it has with many other PL clubs.

* The ticket office have long recognised this group as a 'proper' branch. If the protocol has not been followed internally to have it added to their Branch Liaison Council, that's down to the club, not the secretary.

So are the club coming down in similar ways on the otht branches or is this personal against a proper fan

 

[Zak's Dad]

Again, only now we’re in the big league

I agree one hundred percent mate. I distinctly remember people posting on here when we were in league 1 saying they were going to "do the hard yards now" to build up points for the future - and they did.

And I absolutely admire the fuckers for doing that, they deserve their points and by fuck they deserve their away days now.

But that's a very different scenario from people routinely accessing tickets purchased using the points of someone else in their branch meaning tickets don't reach the next phase.

So are the club coming down in similar ways on the otht branches or is this personal against a proper fan

I'm no conspiracy theorist but the way they've done this and brought in such a huge change without consultation and implementated it on the one bloke you'd expect them to have goodwill in the bank with appears absolutely indefensible.

 

[Chewit]

If these people moaning about not getting tickets went to 15 or 16 away games and the home cup games over the last 3 seasons .they probs would have had 45 to 55 points this season .but no you have tossers who want ballots others that say a percentage of tickets go to people with low points .u tell that to fans who have spent 6 to 7 grand in the last 3 years building them up.this has Been a vendetta by the ticket office manager or above him to try and make a quick headline about safc fan stealing fans tickers.3 weeks later and thousands of posts and this still not going away

Reads to me that most people are sympathetic to the lad and the branch including me. At the very least it’s an overreaction by the club.
But calling other fans tossers because they have a view on giving all fans a chance to attend, just makes you appear entitled.

You’re a super hero for attending all the away games …. But you make it sound like some personal sacrifice or someone was holding a gun to your head.
Its your passion man, and you deserve first dibs, but its not a private members club and there is no annual subscription.

As people have described on here there will be more chances for people next year.

 

[the sleeping giant]

So are the club coming down in similar ways on the otht branches or is this personal against a proper fan

There's a definite feeling that someone in the club has decided to make an example of the branch secretary, particularly given he's been vocal in the past about our ticket offices failings.

We shall see - although the club have put themselves into a very difficult position. If they adopt this hardline approach on other branches (and, indeed, individuals) then they're going to have some very unhappy supporters (and they will generally be the type who go to a lot of matches).

And if they are so keen to implement such a policy on away games (i.e. the ticket can only be used by the person to whom it's been assigned), then one would presume they have to be consistent and apply it to home matches, too. And that would be a massive can of worms.

Of course, then can also choose to not be consistent and not apply those same rules to others - in which case it looks like victimisation towards one particular gentleman / group.

They really didn't think this through at all.

 

[Essayeffsee]

As someone said earlier, it should have been a planned exercise by the club, to commence at the season end.

A couple of months to communicate, consult & sort it out - with clear rules & appropriate sanctions.

Instead they’ve ( certain individuals) painted themselves into a corner, clearly recognising their own errors but not having the barls to hold up their hands.

IMHO

PR Trip. Timing and statements are exactly for that reason. Then a weak as piss supporters group to question. Did they even question the club statement?

 

[Tommy1973]

People who are connected and have had contact with safc 2012 are really angry and disgusted with the club because what the club have done to him is not a 2 year ban .they have took all his points of him which means they have just about given him a lifetime ban from away matches .if we stay in the Premier league it will take him 15 to 20 years to build his points back up.if they can do this to him who is one of the most committed safc supporters they can do it anybody .of the 500 people on here who go to away games is there anybody on here who buys multiple tickets and hasn't ever passed a spare ticket because somebody couldn't travel or dropped out for any reason

 

[marvyn]

People who are connected and have had contact with safc 2012 are really angry and disgusted with the club because what the club have done to him is not a 2 year ban .they have took all his points of him which means they have just about given him a lifetime ban from away matches .if we stay in the Premier league it will take him 15 to 20 years to build his points back up.if they can do this to him who is one of the most committed safc supporters they can do it anybody .of the 500 people on here who go to away games is there anybody on here who buys multiple tickets and hasn't ever passed a spare ticket because somebody couldn't travel or dropped out for any reason

This is very sad and a huge overreaction from the club

 

[safcfan4]

Think branches are deffo going to be targeted going forward like. If the club are taking the stance like they did with this lads branch, could see the end of branches as everyone knows tickets are passed on in a branch

 

[Tommy1973]

Our division 3 ticket office manager will have to give a more severe punishment .5 year ban .and that branch leader or single person will never get to an away match again ffs

 

[tunstallhill]

People who are connected and have had contact with safc 2012 are really angry and disgusted with the club because what the club have done to him is not a 2 year ban .they have took all his points of him which means they have just about given him a lifetime ban from away matches .if we stay in the Premier league it will take him 15 to 20 years to build his points back up.if they can do this to him who is one of the most committed safc supporters they can do it anybody .of the 500 people on here who go to away games is there anybody on here who buys multiple tickets and hasn't ever passed a spare ticket because somebody couldn't travel or dropped out for any reason

The most dedicated Sunderland fan imaginable - banned

And at villa away chances are I'll be stood near someone who didn't even know Sunderland existed this time last year