SAFC - Fan Ban & Ticket Cancellations

[Father Jack Hackett]

Practically everyone i know has benefitted from starting off with someone helping them out...that's what made our fanbase special...looking out for one another....shame that has bypassed some of our fans nowadays. I've been going since 1986 and it has never been an issue until this season.

Absolutely bang-on mate. Without wanting to be too trite,we used to be like one big community where we looked after our own. Of course it used to kick-off amongst some when we were really shit occasionally but generally we looked out for each other.
No-one ever questioned another’s legitimacy of being at an away game, we were all just SAFC. Now you have snidey individuals snooping on each other. What a shame.

 

[Safc98]

Absolutely bang-on mate. Without wanting to be too trite,we used to be like one big community where we looked after our own. Of course it used to kick-off amongst some when we were really shit occasionally but generally we looked out for each other.
No-one ever questioned another’s legitimacy of being at an away game, we were all just SAFC. Now you have snidey individuals snooping on each other. What a shame.

Because demand far exceeds supply

 

[League Wan]

I fully agree mate. I just think this has been dealt with really badly. Not for the first time with that ticket office, either.

They need to be blaming the bloke that's done all this and been caught out, not the ticket office

 

[Father Jack Hackett]

100% this. Club have u-turned regarding their treatment of said fan and hung him out to dry. Helped many fans out throughout our years in L1 and the Championship.

It disgraceful when they’ve been going cap-in-hand to him when they couldn’t sell their entire allocation and didn’t want to lose money.
As I say, a good few this lot have pissed off on the way up will be there waiting for them on the way back down when they need them again and they may not like the answer they receive.

They need to be blaming the bloke that's done all this and been caught out, not the ticket office

The bloke the ticket office used to contact to sell tickets on their behalf in League One?

Because demand far exceeds supply

It does at the minute. As I say, it likely won’t always be that way.

 

[tunstallhill]

100% this. Club have u-turned regarding their treatment of said fan and hung him out to dry. Helped many fans out throughout our years in L1 and the Championship.

the amount of pull he has/had with the train companies alone, the club should have been employing him not banning him

the amount of money he's saved sunderland fans over the years will be in £10,000s. regularly doing block bookings of 200+ on trains to london, getting bus replacements put on especially for us, getting trains delayed especially for us, whole carriages booked out most of the time... and none of us had any dealings with the train companies, barely even saw a train ticket. just sent him the money and turned up and everything was laid on. the blokes a legend to those 1000s of fans who he's personally helped over the years

 

[Gurneysgurn]

the amount of pull he has/had with the train companies alone, the club should have been employing him not banning him

the amount of money he's saved sunderland fans over the years will be in £10,000s. regularly doing block bookings of 200+ on trains to london, getting bus replacements put on especially for us, getting trains delayed especially for us, whole carriages booked out most of the time... and none of us had any dealings with the train companies, barely even saw a train ticket. just sent him the money and turned up and everything was laid on. the blokes a legend to those 1000s of fans who he's personally helped over the years

All for the love of the game - legend you're right.

 

[Safc98]

It disgraceful when they’ve been going cap-in-hand to him when they couldn’t sell their entire allocation and didn’t want to lose money.
As I say, a good few this lot have pissed off on the way up will be there waiting for them on the way back down when they need them again and they may not like the answer they receive.

The bloke the ticket office used to contact to sell tickets on their behalf in League One?

It does at the minute. As I say, it likely won’t always be that way.

Brighton and Port Vale away. Both “sold out” Empty seats everywhere. Tickets everywhere you looked on FB pages. But sold out at 20 and 25 respectively. Something has to be done about that because it’s wrong on people just missing out on those brackets.

 

[brains]

If they’re using the tickets themselves there wouldn’t be an issue. The problem has been all season and in the past of people giving their ticket to others.

If games were going to General sale there probably would be less of an issue but not a single game will go down to GS now

Apparently not though. If you read back in the thread some people are saying that they have just blanket banned all tickets that he has bought. Some of them apparently are using their own tickets.

I know smaller groups of people who do this anyway as they are older and not confident using a computer.

The club should be extra careful about only cancelling those that are being passed on - especially for mags away!

 

[Locke's SAFC]

No-one ever questioned another’s legitimacy of being at an away game, we were all just SAFC. Now you have snidey individuals snooping on each other. What a shame.

It's a reflection of the way society has gone isn't it, bunch of curtain twitchin' fannies these days who can't mind their own business.

As I say, it likely won’t always be that way.

Won't be long even if we're in the top flight. I remember going to Everton in the 2000s, maybe a thousand went, Liverpool as well from memory couldn't sell out at a similar time. Probably loads of others I've forgotten about.

 

[Father Jack Hackett]

It's a reflection of the way society has gone isn't it, bunch of curtain twitchin' fannies these days who can't mind their own business.



Won't be long even if we're in the top flight. I remember going to Everton in the 2000s, maybe a thousand went, Liverpool as well from memory couldn't sell out at a similar time. Probably loads of others I've forgotten about.

Spot-on mate (on both counts)

Brighton and Port Vale away. Both “sold out” Empty seats everywhere. Tickets everywhere you looked on FB pages. But sold out at 20 and 25 respectively. Something has to be done about that because it’s wrong on people just missing out on those brackets.

If they’d gone in League One and under Beale/Dodds they wouldn’t have missed out. Why can’t people just look after their own affairs and live and let live?

 

[southside]

the amount of pull he has/had with the train companies alone, the club should have been employing him not banning him

the amount of money he's saved sunderland fans over the years will be in £10,000s. regularly doing block bookings of 200+ on trains to london, getting bus replacements put on especially for us, getting trains delayed especially for us, whole carriages booked out most of the time... and none of us had any dealings with the train companies, barely even saw a train ticket. just sent him the money and turned up and everything was laid on. the blokes a legend to those 1000s of fans who he's personally helped over the years

If it’s who I’m thinking of his picture was on Facebook couple weeks back with the train conductor and a pile of 500 or so tickets

 

[Hawkings Boots]

Has to be more to it than is being stated on here like

If it is a simple case of the club issuing a sledgehammer to all tickets bought by the person then (even though it's too late now as tickets sold on) they really do need to look at it their approach again

 

[gramw]

Has to be more to it than is being stated on here like

If it is a simple case of the club issuing a sledgehammer to all tickets bought by the person then (even though it's too late now as tickets sold on) they really do need to look at it their approach again

This is what I don’t get.

For all people say it’s an unofficial branch, the club have provided the code to get into the ring fenced tickets this season and also processed applications from them last season. So it’s clearly considered a branch.

I got an email from a branch the other day asking me to let them know if I’m not using my ticket for Villa. They are clearly going to do the same thing, but seemingly if the branch is tied to a town rather than just a bunch of people it’s ok?

 

[Hawyatt Earp]

I appreciate this wont be well liked on here but the person banned for a very very long time is a proper Sunderland supporter who would help his mates (also Sunderland supporters) get the odd ticket for an away match, it's a really aggressive punishment to a genuine fan.

The club are clearly clamping down this and if that's the case, there needs to be some consistency as there is always a "tv personality" or a Sunderland related person from the media with zero black cat points who miraculously gets themselves and their family to away matches for free.. If there was any consistency at all this would also be stopped. But it wont.

 

[Towers76]

Yeah, a lot of speculation and to be fair a lot of it seems well founded, but it would be good to know what has really happened here. From initial suspicions through to warnings etc and final action that the club took and why they took it. I can't imagine how any genuine fan who is missing the match on Sunday because of this must be feeling right now. They must be devastated. What gets me most though is the timing. Just before the biggest away game of the season. Maybe PR etc as has been mentioned but it just doesn't sit well with me. Feels like a set-up

 

[Mackem Al]

the amount of pull he has/had with the train companies alone, the club should have been employing him not banning him

the amount of money he's saved sunderland fans over the years will be in £10,000s. regularly doing block bookings of 200+ on trains to london, getting bus replacements put on especially for us, getting trains delayed especially for us, whole carriages booked out most of the time... and none of us had any dealings with the train companies, barely even saw a train ticket. just sent him the money and turned up and everything was laid on. the blokes a legend to those 1000s of fans who he's personally helped over the years

Absolutely this and he'd spend god knows how many hours of his own time organising all of this and sorting out rebates from late trains which was all passed back into the group for hugely discounted rail travel. My understanding is the annual spend with LNER was well into 6 figures and was their biggest non-commercial client in the UK.

For the record, i've not been affected by this and i'll be in the away end on Sunday but i know a lot of lads and lasses that should be there but arent some with upwards of 70 points who go to every single away game. They 100% deserve to be and it makes me feel sick that they'll miss this game through no fault of their own.

The lad would help anyone and never asked for anything in return.

 

[Sgt Pepper]

Is there nowt we as fellow fans can do to pester the club to get them to reverse a bit on this? Obviously be too late for this weekend’s match but banning him sounds disgraceful when they’ve used him before to help sell tickets when we were shit. Like I posted before, just because demand is good now doesn’t mean it always will be and supporters like this are the backbone of our support and away support, they should not be being shit on.

 

[Father Jack Hackett]

Absolutely this and he'd spend god knows how many hours of his own time organising all of this and sorting out rebates from late trains which was all passed back into the group for hugely discounted rail travel. My understanding is the annual spend with LNER was well into 6 figures and was their biggest non-commercial client in the UK.

For the record, i've not been affected by this and i'll be in the away end on Sunday but i know a lot of lads and lasses that should be there but arent some with upwards of 70 points who go to every single away game. They 100% deserve to be and it makes me feel sick that they'll miss this game through no fault of their own.

The ticket office manager should be made to personally explain his decision to them. If not him then, whoever did decide.
These will be lads and lasses who have been travelling up and down the country for years and at least deserve that. Of course it won’t happen.

 

[dangermows]

Cheers @Grimes lad. Really appreciate it.

 

[Father Jack Hackett]

Is there nowt we as fellow fans can do to pester the club to get them to reverse a bit on this? Obviously be too late for this weekend’s match but banning him sounds disgraceful when they’ve used him before to help sell tickets when we were shit. Like I posted before, just because demand is good now doesn’t mean it always will be and supporters like this are the backbone of our support and away support, they should not be being shit on.

There really should be mate. From my personal and people I know’s experiences with those making the decisions, it won’t get very far, however. Very much a case of “computer days no”.
Hopefully I’m wrong though.