SAFC - Fan Ban & Ticket Cancellations

[the sleeping giant]

[email protected]

Please use this email address (with examples & specific concerns) if you’d like to ask RAWA to express serious concerns to the club over the numerous problems being experienced with ticketing operations.

As I’ve said before, it maybe they are working behind the scenes with this but that doesn’t mean the problems are any the less if the club are making the process of watching the team stupidly difficult.

Persistence counts, as do numbers. Tell our fans group your concerns directly… as fans we need to be much harder to ignore.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Yeah but any chance of the links you were talking about. You were pretty adamant it was easy to get away tickets from external links. Or another post of shit from you?

There are a few sites where you can in theory buy away tickets. The prices though are set stupidly high because the ticketing companies often don’t actually have the tickets.

They are nearly always set at £400+ and that is down to the company having to source a ticket from the away support on the day of the match.

They will hope to find someone who has a spare and then offer up to £200 for it. The rest is profit.

Apparently it’s quite common with the old firm clubs

 

[ISOE II]

Wow

I was at the pub and I can confirm that was said.

 

[tunstallhill]

Whilst in the pub yesterday, a friend told me how the club had ripped their family off earlier this season.

They had an elderly relative (over 65) who wasn’t able to go to a home game and they wanted to give their ticket to their grandson (next generation of Sunderland fans) 10 year old. They tried to forward the ticket using the official club channels, however as the ticket needs to be forwarded “like for like” it wouldn’t allow it. They went to the ticket office and they said they couldn’t just give their lad the ticket as going in on an over 65 ticket as a 10 year old would constitute fraud, however what they could do was to “upgrade the ticket to an adult and pay the additional £14” My friend paid the additional £14 reluctantly and are of the opinion that the club left them with no alternative due to their processes. It was either that or have their friends grandson miss out on attending a game and the hope that they have that he gets the footballing bug and becomes a lifelong SAFC fan.

using block L8 as an example:

adult = £48
over 65 = £36
under 14 = £24

if anything, the club should have owed them money for downgrading the ticket.

its this type of nonsense service that is minor in isolation, but accumulatively over the years it builds up a damning picture of how we are treated. this board only cover a tiny percentage of our support as a whole, as does RAWA and other supporters groups. there'll be endless examples of this type of treatment by the club to fans who never make it public or complain and just soak up the inconvenience, cost and rudeness of the ticket office staff and get on with their day

how can a 10 year old be formally allowed to enter the ground on an adult ticket (£48), but not allowed to enter on an over-65 ticket (£36) , even though an under-14 ticket is significantly cheaper than both ?

you'd think the person in the ticket office would laugh about it, and say 'eee your dead right, here's a u-14 ticket, no charge, thanks, enjoy the game! '

 

[RTRsBM]

One of the cancelled season ticket holders spoke to me about it in the pub before the match yesterday. He'd been to the ticket office to try and speak to the manager about it, but the ticket office manager doesn't work on matchdays!

The new Jack Rodwell

 

[Essayeffsee]

This is unbelievable and more and more things are becoming apparent.

1. This isnt about away tickets. This is personal.
2. The ticket office and those making decisions is not fit for purpose.
3. RAWA need to push more and not just accept ambiguous statements from club. If represent fans as claim to all dialogue/statements should be reported.
4. This is happening to P. Who is next? It could be any of us.

 

[MadMackem10]

Iam at loss with this. We sit in South stand its a joke around us the seat next to us only been used a few times for the big games

Is it the same person who uses it for the big games or different people each time? If it's different I bet it's a season ticket that gets relisted for a massive profit on those third party websites

 

[BillBull]

No its the same person be lucky if hes used it 6 times

 

[the sleeping giant]

This is unbelievable and more and more things are becoming apparent.

1. This isnt about away tickets. This is personal.
2. The ticket office and those making decisions is not fit for purpose.
3. RAWA need to push more and not just accept ambiguous statements from club. If represent fans as claim to all dialogue/statements should be reported.
4. This is happening to P. Who is next? It could be any of us.

It's very much starting to look like victimisation.

I'd like to believe that those further up the food chain wouldn't be bothering with getting into such childish behaviour, but we've all met low-level managers where the power goes to their head and they make things personal because they haven't got the emotional intelligence to cope the stress of the job.

From what I know of the dialogue between the ticket office and the branch, I believe that is exactly what is happening here.

 

[buster]

Like I said I drove from hpool to ticket office to sort out a matter n was told to go on asksafc.

Did he moan about driving so far north as well ?

 

[Tommy1973]

How about replacing the rawa with people of here who want to actually get things done

 

[Hetty]

How about replacing the rawa with people of here who want to actually get things done

Because they didn't apply for the RAWA Rep role and don't want to do it

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

How about replacing the rawa with people of here who want to actually get things done

At the end of the day, no fan group can force a club to do anything. The club are also not obliged to consult anything other than a fans' trust.

 

[Wearside Wanderer II]

How about replacing the rawa with people of here who want to actually get things done

A bit disingenuous, you have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, it’s a very Trumpesque view you have, however, you can always put yourself forward to be voted in, however I fully expect you won’t and just want to bang your keyboard and shout at the moon.

 

[Essayeffsee]

Because they didn't apply for the RAWA Rep role and don't want to do it

RAWA arent fit for purpose imho.

Should be a separate stand alone fan group one who will hold the club to task and not sit back and be too close to the club. The club and individuals need holding to task on some things and not just accept any old ambiguous statement.

 

[tunstallhill]

How about replacing the rawa with people of here who want to actually get things done

any other group that is set up will have just as little power over the club that the current groups have. its just the way of it unfortunately

RAWA arent fit for purpose imho.

Should be a separate stand alone fan group one who will hold the club to task and not sit back and be too close to the club. The club and individuals need holding to task on some things and not just accept any old ambiguous statement.

problem is, RAWA could release a statement demanding specific answers from the club and make those demands to their contact at the club, but the club can simply just ignore them and theres fuck all any of us can do about it.

 

[Hetty]

RAWA arent fit for purpose imho.

Should be a separate stand alone fan group one who will hold the club to task and not sit back and be too close to the club. The club and individuals need holding to task on some things and not just accept any old ambiguous statement.

There are 4 individual independent fans who do that already. But like above i doubt anyone on here applied for the role apart from a few who got rejected for the vote

 

[Essayeffsee]

A bit disingenuous, you have no idea what is going on behind the scenes, it’s a very Trumpesque view you have, however, you can always put yourself forward to be voted in, however I fully expect you won’t and just want to bang your keyboard and shout at the moon.

Im not a Trump lover or advocate at all but do question the effectiveness of RAWA and if they are fit for purpose when it comes to holding the club to task. Just lip service like the minutes of the meetings. Lots of empty words and promises that get broken and nothing is done.

The fact the ticket office hasnt been improved in all this time shows the club dont really care and they havent been questioned about it.

 

[Chop Sauce]

No its the same person be lucky if hes used it 6 times

So what? He pays for it.

 

[Essayeffsee]

any other group that is set up will have just as little power over the club that the current groups have. its just the way of it unfortunately


problem is, RAWA could release a statement demanding specific answers from the club and make those demands to their contact at the club, but the club can simply just ignore them and theres fuck all any of us can do about it.

That may be true and correct but a public statement and sent to the club will at least do something. If the new group actually represented or spoke for enough people it would become a voice that would need to be heard. There are plenty of fans groups out there who arent supporters trusts who do put pressure on clubs over decisions.

I also think it helps if these groups are seen to be doing things. An odd statement here and there saying we are in dialogue with the club just keeps it as closed shop and hardly voice for all fans when most dont know what is and isnt being said.

There are 4 individual independent fans who do that already. But like above i doubt anyone on here applied for the role apart from a few who got rejected for the vote

Arent these 4 individual fans still part of the RAWA?

I think this sorry episode is showing need a new independent group representing match going fans.