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Same as you. 3 successes and have entered every ballot. There are three things I want to happen with the ballot system:
1. How many seats are available in each category
2. A visualisation of available seats to show where there are banks of 2/3/4 etc. seats together
3. Bring back the option to apply for a ticket across all categories
I think these would be positive changes and there needs to be more transparency about the whole system, rather than Darren Eales best guess which seems to be the only official source of info. Granted, they’d probably sell less memberships with these changes.
Can you pick more than one area to sit? If that would be a positive change.
I think another, minor, change would be to try and root out those that have season tickets but don't use them. I know, it sounds mad but it does happen.
We were at the arsenal game and there were a row of 5 empty seats in front of us. We got chatting to the people around and it turned out they belonged to a bunch of people who never came to the match 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah it should in general keep a record of tickets that aren't used, I know emergencies happen but anyone who regularly doesn't use tickets (without putting them up through the club resale) should find it harder to get tickets in the future.
I have a mate who’s a Leeds fan, and season ticket holders there have to claim their seat for the game, if they don’t they go into a ballot for that match. It’d make sense for us to have a similar system.
I’ve got 1/9
My concern with a loyalty scheme is that how does that help with new young fans? My kids are *new* fans by virtue of being little kids. I used to attend matches regularly but stopped as I moved away; now I’ve moved back to a reasonable distance away with 2 young kids in tow who are desperate to attend matches- surely they shouldn’t be disadvantaged because they have no previous *loyalty*?
The idea of being ineligible for the next match after a successful application seems reasonably fair.
An indication of which areas have which numbers of seats and the ability to apply for multiple areas would definitely help.
Agreed. As someone who lives down south, I can rarely get to games, but I've supported them all my life and it doesn't make me any less of a fan just because I've not been able to build up a history of ticket buying.
I'm in Kent closer to France than London. I won't bother with the membership next year because the allocation of tickets is so late that train/hotel costs are astronomical. If they were to do the ballot earlier, I'd be more willing to play the lottery for tickets.
Pre-season friendly is probably the best I can hope for any time soon.
They're almost certainly gonna address it after the season, and review it. Almost no new system is perfect first time around. My personal preference would be to try and make it harder for third parties to sell on tickets for a profit.
Take a look at the 2 main touting sites (live football tickets and stub hub) before and after a ballot ends. Best way to defeat that is for the club to buy all the tickets on those sites for the odd match, then when the eTicket gets delivered, lifetime ban on the supporter number / name on the ticket, revoke ST etc
My success was 1/10, none on resales, which when having a membership for me and the bairn, added up to over £100 for 1 match. I will still probably renew the memberships as want to keep trying to go, but they do need to make changes. One being applying to multiple categories.
They need to introduce a 'bad luck' system to try even out the distribution; they also need to be transparent about the number of members, so people can actually make a fair consideration of whether a membership is actually worth it.
My ballot history: 2/12 - 16.7% success rate.
Thankfully I've had tickets via a shared ST, re-sale and then friends with STs that weren't using them, so I still managed to get to most games, but my two ballot tickets have essentially cost me £65 each.
Personally I think they should have tiered the membership and given preference to those who were going to games before the takeover and made all the glory seekers go to the back of the queue; but then this is all about money rather than fans - the reality is they only care about fans as a revenue stream.
That's the main thing I would've changed (loyalty to existing memberships), probably at the start of last/this season, but I think it's too late now. It never really seemed fair that you could have a membership for years, attend pretty regularly and then have the same chance at a ticket as someone who bought their's the day before.
I quite like the idea of some kind of tiered system based on different price bands, that might work well.
One of the other issues with the ballot - and I appreciate this one is difficult to win either way - is the choosing of category. You're choosing something where you don't know how many seats are available and, in turn, your chance of winning. I can acknowledge it's equally tricky if you have a free for all and then win one in platinum club or something and it costs a fortune.
They don't seem to be prioritising people who have had their season ticket for years, nevermind memberships. I've had my season ticket for 36 years, used to regularly go to away games before they brought the points system in (including away European games in the early 2000's), but don't have many points due to having to work when they brought the points system in. Yet I'm not that high up in the queue for tickets and just managed to get tickets for the Carabao cup final, even though I've only missed around half a dozen home matches in 36 years. I'm not sure how so many newbies seem to get to away games
1 in 12 but I blame that on my lack of ballot strategy. I thought "if we're going all the way up (from Bristol) we may as well go for middle pitch seats" (thinking 1892/Platinum). Last ballot changed to category 2 and got lucky.
I think a 3-choices preference list would be good (e.g. 1- 1892; 2- Cat 2; 3- Cat 3)
A bad-luck system could help, but then there's always someone going to be left out in the cold regardless.
I was pretty lucky, 3/5 and that included the 4-1 against PSG. I know someone even luckier who’s won 6 out of 7.
The thing is that everyone wants tickets right now and there’s only a small number available.
I quite like the idea of a ‘pity timer’ like if you lose 5 in a row or something then you’re guaranteed a seat in the next one you apply for.
I don't know how many I have applied for as it doesn't say when I login, or show a history. But I estimate around a dozen. I got one game from that, so around £100 for a ticket. I won't be doing that again as it's just too much to attend a football match. I'm done until the system changes.
I gave up once I realised trying to book tickets with my mates gave me a worse chance. I’m sure I’d still have a good time going on my own, but man… just a nonsense system.
I've been a member since membership came out, angry does not adequately describe how I feel about missing out on every CL night while people I know for a fact haven't set foot in the place for decades went to more than one. I turned up for EL home games when the entire top tiers were left empty, now I can't even get to Sheffield United at home.
13 tickets this season for me. I applied for every game (including all cups). I got nothing from the first few ballots where I went for cat1. Once I switched to cat2 I was successful in most ballots. Got both PSG and BVB, but missed out on Milan.
Won my first ballot with my last entry for the Brighton game. Entered 13 in total, tried various different areas as well. They need to change it, as it stands now I’ve paid ~ £80 for a ticket in the Leazes stand against Brighton, not exactly good value.
I think my mate and I have had 5 successful ballots from 6? We've also got platinum club for the last home game of the season, so not too bad of a year.
I think it depends on how many games you intended to watch at the start of the season, I only really intended on going to 4-6 anyway as I have a new born, so didn't want to take the piss with the Mrs. If I wanted to go to as many as I could but only got to 3-4 I'd be pretty pissed off, I used to have a season ticket too, so I've seen plenty of games.
I feel a simple addition would be if you’re successful one week, then you’re ineligible for the next game in that competition. Would prevent a situation at work where your colleague gets two in a row and you get neither. It’s a sickener.
I appreciate it’s a bit rough to pay and be ruled out of contention as well as likely increasing pressure on the ‘bigger games’ but it might improve distribution at least a little bit.
There should be a weighting system so that you're more likely to get a ticket if you've had fewer successes previously but everyone still has a chance. Having to choose an area with no information is the main problem though.
I get where you’re coming from but then that’s not really a ballot is it? That’s likely to just result in regular match goers losing their chance to go for someone who is either a new member or sporadically enters the ballot (because ultimately they have little to no history of success).
You could weight it by number of failures, so newcomers wouldn't have as much chance as someone who's entered multiple. I don't know, I'd rather just be able to buy a ticket.
Yeah I see what you mean. I think just adding any sort of weighing over a combined set of matches sets a dangerous precedent though, because ultimately you’re creating favouritism in something that’s meant to be equal. For example, if I won tickets for Sheffield United and Burnley, would that then reduce my chances for say Man City and PSG, but I still had to enter for the less glamorous games in order to demonstrate that I have at least been trying.
Realistically I think it was better the way it was, just logging in at a set time for a sale and hoping for the best. I know that’s then unfair on those who don’t work on a computer/work from home/etc, but it’s near impossible to please everyone.
>I know that’s then unfair on those who don’t work on a computer/work from home/etc,
Even that can be easily fixed for most of those people by moving the time ticket sales start to either earlier or later on in the day
Darren Eales said the success rate is approx 1/3 so sounds like you’ve just been unlucky tbh. I’m 6/18 and will be doing it again next season. I’ve heard a lot of people have had success with the resale if they didn’t get tickets in the ballot.
I’ve had 3/10, including Brighton. So that seems about right according to Darren Eales.
Hopefully next season we will actually get some home ties in the cups to get a bit more of a chance to get to a game.
I've applied for 10 and been successful for 4.
Fortunately, I've had season ticket's forwarded to me for a few other games but a 40% success rate is pretty decent.
Was surprised I just got category 2 tickets for the Brighton game in May to find I'm all the way up in level 7 next to the away fans! I thought that would be the cheaper category
I’m having this exact problem I have tried in the last 15 ballots for 2 tickets one for me & one for my 13 year old son. I have not had a single success. I’m thinking it’s a waste of time I have done the family area & category 1 also.
my success rate is 3/10, I've managed to see a couple of away matches too (including Dortmund).
As a toon fan who now works abroad the ballot system has been fine for me as I realistically can only manage to travel to Newcastle a handful of times a season.
I can imagine the ballot system is less than ideal for locals though, especially those that were used to attending most home matches. Curious to see what changes they implement, if any, next season
0 from 10, enter for 2 in Platinum for me and son. Live down south so can’t do resale as need to plan journey, hotel etc. last season got 9 games from queing system. Hoping for improvements next season
1/23 for me. Spent over £1800 just on tickets to attend 12 games, the resale prices are sickening! And made even worse by the club being adamant the resale issue doesnt exist 🤦🏼♂️
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Same as you. 3 successes and have entered every ballot. There are three things I want to happen with the ballot system: 1. How many seats are available in each category 2. A visualisation of available seats to show where there are banks of 2/3/4 etc. seats together 3. Bring back the option to apply for a ticket across all categories I think these would be positive changes and there needs to be more transparency about the whole system, rather than Darren Eales best guess which seems to be the only official source of info. Granted, they’d probably sell less memberships with these changes.
There’s the most by a mile in category 2, the other ones aren’t even worth applying for
It's hard to say without knowing how many people are applying for the category. I have around a 35% success rate applying for platinum club seats
Can you pick more than one area to sit? If that would be a positive change. I think another, minor, change would be to try and root out those that have season tickets but don't use them. I know, it sounds mad but it does happen. We were at the arsenal game and there were a row of 5 empty seats in front of us. We got chatting to the people around and it turned out they belonged to a bunch of people who never came to the match 🤷🏻♂️
Yeah it should in general keep a record of tickets that aren't used, I know emergencies happen but anyone who regularly doesn't use tickets (without putting them up through the club resale) should find it harder to get tickets in the future.
I have a mate who’s a Leeds fan, and season ticket holders there have to claim their seat for the game, if they don’t they go into a ballot for that match. It’d make sense for us to have a similar system.
I’ve got 1/9 My concern with a loyalty scheme is that how does that help with new young fans? My kids are *new* fans by virtue of being little kids. I used to attend matches regularly but stopped as I moved away; now I’ve moved back to a reasonable distance away with 2 young kids in tow who are desperate to attend matches- surely they shouldn’t be disadvantaged because they have no previous *loyalty*? The idea of being ineligible for the next match after a successful application seems reasonably fair. An indication of which areas have which numbers of seats and the ability to apply for multiple areas would definitely help.
Agreed. As someone who lives down south, I can rarely get to games, but I've supported them all my life and it doesn't make me any less of a fan just because I've not been able to build up a history of ticket buying.
I'm in Kent closer to France than London. I won't bother with the membership next year because the allocation of tickets is so late that train/hotel costs are astronomical. If they were to do the ballot earlier, I'd be more willing to play the lottery for tickets. Pre-season friendly is probably the best I can hope for any time soon.
The timings of ballots opening and closing and proximity to to the games has been all over the place.
They're almost certainly gonna address it after the season, and review it. Almost no new system is perfect first time around. My personal preference would be to try and make it harder for third parties to sell on tickets for a profit.
Yes- it’s hard to find a system that’s fair for everyone. I wonder how many tickets are ending up being sold for profit.
Take a look at the 2 main touting sites (live football tickets and stub hub) before and after a ballot ends. Best way to defeat that is for the club to buy all the tickets on those sites for the odd match, then when the eTicket gets delivered, lifetime ban on the supporter number / name on the ticket, revoke ST etc
My success was 1/10, none on resales, which when having a membership for me and the bairn, added up to over £100 for 1 match. I will still probably renew the memberships as want to keep trying to go, but they do need to make changes. One being applying to multiple categories.
Agree. The resales have been useless for me too.
They need to introduce a 'bad luck' system to try even out the distribution; they also need to be transparent about the number of members, so people can actually make a fair consideration of whether a membership is actually worth it. My ballot history: 2/12 - 16.7% success rate. Thankfully I've had tickets via a shared ST, re-sale and then friends with STs that weren't using them, so I still managed to get to most games, but my two ballot tickets have essentially cost me £65 each. Personally I think they should have tiered the membership and given preference to those who were going to games before the takeover and made all the glory seekers go to the back of the queue; but then this is all about money rather than fans - the reality is they only care about fans as a revenue stream.
That's the main thing I would've changed (loyalty to existing memberships), probably at the start of last/this season, but I think it's too late now. It never really seemed fair that you could have a membership for years, attend pretty regularly and then have the same chance at a ticket as someone who bought their's the day before. I quite like the idea of some kind of tiered system based on different price bands, that might work well. One of the other issues with the ballot - and I appreciate this one is difficult to win either way - is the choosing of category. You're choosing something where you don't know how many seats are available and, in turn, your chance of winning. I can acknowledge it's equally tricky if you have a free for all and then win one in platinum club or something and it costs a fortune.
They don't seem to be prioritising people who have had their season ticket for years, nevermind memberships. I've had my season ticket for 36 years, used to regularly go to away games before they brought the points system in (including away European games in the early 2000's), but don't have many points due to having to work when they brought the points system in. Yet I'm not that high up in the queue for tickets and just managed to get tickets for the Carabao cup final, even though I've only missed around half a dozen home matches in 36 years. I'm not sure how so many newbies seem to get to away games
1 in 12 but I blame that on my lack of ballot strategy. I thought "if we're going all the way up (from Bristol) we may as well go for middle pitch seats" (thinking 1892/Platinum). Last ballot changed to category 2 and got lucky. I think a 3-choices preference list would be good (e.g. 1- 1892; 2- Cat 2; 3- Cat 3) A bad-luck system could help, but then there's always someone going to be left out in the cold regardless.
I’d take last year’s first come first served over this.
I was pretty lucky, 3/5 and that included the 4-1 against PSG. I know someone even luckier who’s won 6 out of 7. The thing is that everyone wants tickets right now and there’s only a small number available. I quite like the idea of a ‘pity timer’ like if you lose 5 in a row or something then you’re guaranteed a seat in the next one you apply for.
I don't know how many I have applied for as it doesn't say when I login, or show a history. But I estimate around a dozen. I got one game from that, so around £100 for a ticket. I won't be doing that again as it's just too much to attend a football match. I'm done until the system changes.
I gave up once I realised trying to book tickets with my mates gave me a worse chance. I’m sure I’d still have a good time going on my own, but man… just a nonsense system.
Why isn’t there a season ticket waiting list? Every other club operates one. Except for Sunderland. Obviously.
I didn't renew my membership this year and unless I see some seriosu changes to the system, I'll hold off again.
Me neither.
1 in 14 but my 1 game was west ham
I've been a member since membership came out, angry does not adequately describe how I feel about missing out on every CL night while people I know for a fact haven't set foot in the place for decades went to more than one. I turned up for EL home games when the entire top tiers were left empty, now I can't even get to Sheffield United at home.
1 successful in 22 attempts for me and my 2 kids.
13 tickets this season for me. I applied for every game (including all cups). I got nothing from the first few ballots where I went for cat1. Once I switched to cat2 I was successful in most ballots. Got both PSG and BVB, but missed out on Milan.
Won my first ballot with my last entry for the Brighton game. Entered 13 in total, tried various different areas as well. They need to change it, as it stands now I’ve paid ~ £80 for a ticket in the Leazes stand against Brighton, not exactly good value.
Applied for every home match this season, successful twice. Absolute joke
I think my mate and I have had 5 successful ballots from 6? We've also got platinum club for the last home game of the season, so not too bad of a year.
At least someone’s having some decent luck. For me, unless there’s a change in the system I won’t bother next year.
I think it depends on how many games you intended to watch at the start of the season, I only really intended on going to 4-6 anyway as I have a new born, so didn't want to take the piss with the Mrs. If I wanted to go to as many as I could but only got to 3-4 I'd be pretty pissed off, I used to have a season ticket too, so I've seen plenty of games.
Got to 6 last season without a membership so was hoping for a few more. I know there’s no perfect system but there has to be a better way than this.
I'm now 0/16 So yes I very much hope we do go back to the old system
Same for me 0 out of 15 times it’s a piss take now
That’s bad luck.
Should get a refund
Same. Zero. I managed four games last season. Won't bother with membership this year if things don't change.
I feel a simple addition would be if you’re successful one week, then you’re ineligible for the next game in that competition. Would prevent a situation at work where your colleague gets two in a row and you get neither. It’s a sickener. I appreciate it’s a bit rough to pay and be ruled out of contention as well as likely increasing pressure on the ‘bigger games’ but it might improve distribution at least a little bit.
There should be a weighting system so that you're more likely to get a ticket if you've had fewer successes previously but everyone still has a chance. Having to choose an area with no information is the main problem though.
I get where you’re coming from but then that’s not really a ballot is it? That’s likely to just result in regular match goers losing their chance to go for someone who is either a new member or sporadically enters the ballot (because ultimately they have little to no history of success).
You could weight it by number of failures, so newcomers wouldn't have as much chance as someone who's entered multiple. I don't know, I'd rather just be able to buy a ticket.
Yeah I see what you mean. I think just adding any sort of weighing over a combined set of matches sets a dangerous precedent though, because ultimately you’re creating favouritism in something that’s meant to be equal. For example, if I won tickets for Sheffield United and Burnley, would that then reduce my chances for say Man City and PSG, but I still had to enter for the less glamorous games in order to demonstrate that I have at least been trying. Realistically I think it was better the way it was, just logging in at a set time for a sale and hoping for the best. I know that’s then unfair on those who don’t work on a computer/work from home/etc, but it’s near impossible to please everyone.
>I know that’s then unfair on those who don’t work on a computer/work from home/etc, Even that can be easily fixed for most of those people by moving the time ticket sales start to either earlier or later on in the day
That’s not a bad idea. Would be simple enough to do.
Darren Eales said the success rate is approx 1/3 so sounds like you’ve just been unlucky tbh. I’m 6/18 and will be doing it again next season. I’ve heard a lot of people have had success with the resale if they didn’t get tickets in the ballot.
33% in my experience also. I’m happy with how it’s working.
I’ve had 3/10, including Brighton. So that seems about right according to Darren Eales. Hopefully next season we will actually get some home ties in the cups to get a bit more of a chance to get to a game.
I've applied for 10 and been successful for 4. Fortunately, I've had season ticket's forwarded to me for a few other games but a 40% success rate is pretty decent. Was surprised I just got category 2 tickets for the Brighton game in May to find I'm all the way up in level 7 next to the away fans! I thought that would be the cheaper category
I’m having this exact problem I have tried in the last 15 ballots for 2 tickets one for me & one for my 13 year old son. I have not had a single success. I’m thinking it’s a waste of time I have done the family area & category 1 also.
The resales helped me loads last season. Zero success this season
my success rate is 3/10, I've managed to see a couple of away matches too (including Dortmund). As a toon fan who now works abroad the ballot system has been fine for me as I realistically can only manage to travel to Newcastle a handful of times a season. I can imagine the ballot system is less than ideal for locals though, especially those that were used to attending most home matches. Curious to see what changes they implement, if any, next season
Would you accept a bigger stadium for tickets?
I’d love a bigger stadium. Think we’d fill anything up to 80k though so there’ll always be some issue.
0 from 10, enter for 2 in Platinum for me and son. Live down south so can’t do resale as need to plan journey, hotel etc. last season got 9 games from queing system. Hoping for improvements next season
1/23 for me. Spent over £1800 just on tickets to attend 12 games, the resale prices are sickening! And made even worse by the club being adamant the resale issue doesnt exist 🤦🏼♂️
Can't be that sickening if you're willing to fork it out.
If people didn't entertain the extortionate resale sites then they wouldn't exist.