Away tickets

[mini _dariusz]

What's the system for Exiles ?

It allows Exiles who do not have the opportunity to accumulate loyalty points can arrange through STAR to attend some home games, and there is an arrangement for away tickets for Exiles that is similar. For more info please contact STAR exiles through http://www.star-reading.org.

People who live far from Reading who don't get to go to watch matches regularly and accumilate royalty points get special dispensation (now and again, whether it be on a sporadic basis or not) to watch RFC ahead of those who have accumilated royalty points.

What a joke.

[Stranded]

Bless.

Most supporters clubs have Exiles schemes, we're not unique in that regard.

[mini _dariusz]

there speaks an exile.

[Stranded]

Is it possible to be an exile with an RG30 postcode?

[working class hero]

I'd like to know what these complaints are. As already stated I had no problems last season with where I was placed and haven't heard of anyone else complaining before.

The most frequent complaint was that the ASTs were often in the corner while those who bought late were behind the goal. The Fulham example was several ASTs were right against the river wall and could not see all of the pitch, whether sitting or standing

Never mind - we won't be at Fulham again.


Oh....

[AF1]

I'd like to know what these complaints are. As already stated I had no problems last season with where I was placed and haven't heard of anyone else complaining before.

The most frequent complaint was that the ASTs were often in the corner while those who bought late were behind the goal. The Fulham example was several ASTs were right against the river wall and could not see all of the pitch, whether sitting or standing

Sounds like an incredibly feeble reason to be meddling with the system IMO.

[NWL Royal]

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[NWL Royal]

Totally anti the suggestion. and it's not as though we'll sell out our allocations every week is it. We only did that last year in the Premiership three times, and once was because the club totally underestimated the demand for tickets at Birmingham! .

Off the top of my head, Didn't we sell out for Birm. City, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Liverpool, fulham, derby .. ?! more than 3

[3 veesinarow]

What's the system for Exiles ?

It allows Exiles who do not have the opportunity to accumulate loyalty points can arrange through STAR to attend some home games, and there is an arrangement for away tickets for Exiles that is similar. For more info please contact STAR exiles through http://www.star-reading.org.

People who live far from Reading who don't get to go to watch matches regularly and accumilate royalty points get special dispensation (now and again, whether it be on a sporadic basis or not) to watch RFC ahead of those who have accumilated royalty points.

What a joke.

The lower South-West corner has a couple of hundred seats which are not primarily sold by the club, but are used for, amongst other things, the free seats used by families of the mascots, "community" seats given away to local causes, blocks requested by touring schoolboy sides (check out the clumps of tracksuited kids), extra tickets requested for players' families, etc. I believe that any "Exile" requesting tickets has to justify their potentially one-off attendance and would not be sold tickets again for this section.
Anyone who has accumulated the necessary points will not be allocated a seat in this area, only in the open stands where available, so there is no conflict between the interests of the regular punter without a season ticket and those who may only ever visit the stadium once. You could almost view it as a version of the neutrals' section at Fulham.

[STAR_Exiles]

As the current STAR Exiles Co-ordinator and founder of the Northern Royals I'll add my thoughts from my experiences with RFC Ticket Office:
- We currently have a proven system, but there's always things to improve.
- Royal Mail generally deliver most tickets safely, but sending a week before is a bit tight and 10-14 days is preferrable.
- The key to a smooth operation in my view is sorting as much in advance as possible, so if we want to match "preferred" seats to fans requirements could we have a typical ground marked up into sections (behind goal, pitch side, high, low, etc) and ask each fan to give a seat preference ranking at the beginning of the season. RFC TO could try to match the preference when away tickets are released.
- The delay for issuing tickets by RFC often seems to be their late receipt from the away club.
- RFC would need co-operation of the away club for a different and/or improved system to work.
- From a "selfish" exiles group point of view, reserved seating allows us to arrange a block of seats for fans from different locations to sit together - Northern Royals covers a large geographical area!!
Hope this is of help.
Trevor Mossman

[Jerry St Clair]

- The key to a smooth operation in my view is sorting as much in advance as possible, so if we want to match "preferred" seats to fans requirements could we have a typical ground marked up into sections (behind goal, pitch side, high, low, etc) and ask each fan to give a seat preference ranking at the beginning of the season. RFC TO could try to match the preference when away tickets are released.

Great idea but totally unworkable in practice I would imagine.

How about we just return to terraces then everyone can stand where they like?

[Rawlie19]

- The key to a smooth operation in my view is sorting as much in advance as possible, so if we want to match "preferred" seats to fans requirements could we have a typical ground marked up into sections (behind goal, pitch side, high, low, etc) and ask each fan to give a seat preference ranking at the beginning of the season. RFC TO could try to match the preference when away tickets are released.

Great idea but totally unworkable in practice I would imagine.

How about we just return to terraces then everyone can stand where they like?

Excellent. Have you perfected the flux capacitor yet? Did you go with the Delorean or a fridge?

[anR]

The current system is fine.

I have Royalty points coming out of my ears. A couple of years back December 15th, Birmingham City in the Cup. Knowing full well the demand, I did not waste time getting tickets, and on the day where was I sat? Hanging over the car park far beyond the touch line.

So there's me, a person with more than enough points poked in a corner, whilst some johnny come latly had plum seats in the middle of the stand.

Surely if starliason was looking for some feedback, the answer should be in the allocation of tickets. I always feel that despite having 800+ points, I have to stagger the days to make sure I don't have the rubbish seats I would have got straight off. Liverpool in the Cup, again I was off the corner of pitch, this time in the front ine the rain. Fulham away this season, it sounds as though I did ok in not going.

If the problem is all about postage issues, perhaps one solution would be receipts that could be exchanged to the ticket at an arranged point, be it 'turnstile 3' or even 'Coach 1' at the ground? If this is not realistic, how about greater understanding about how the seats are sent out?

[STAR Liaison]

As

- The delay for issuing tickets by RFC often seems to be their late receipt from the away club.

This was one of the big pluses from the ticket office perspective - they only need to know prices to start selling, they don't need the actual tickets. This means there can be earlier selling and less pressure at particular times.

We are all aware that now we are back in the Championship there is less of a problem in all probability as the away clubs may well give larger allocations than many premiership clubs do. If the system works and we get back to the premiership think of the benefits of being much more assured of whether to take the first allocation or the whole 3000 if the demand level is already known.

[STAR Liaison]

The current system is fine.

I have Royalty points coming out of my ears. A couple of years back December 15th, Birmingham City in the Cup. Knowing full well the demand, I did not waste time getting tickets, and on the day where was I sat? Hanging over the car park far beyond the touch line.

So there's me, a person with more than enough points poked in a corner, whilst some johnny come latly had plum seats in the middle of the stand.

This is exactly the complaint that I have had, as have the ticket office (many times and vociferously despite the comments on here). There are quite a few regular away supporters who do not think the current system is fine.

They have the problem of being told where to start selling the tickets from (which is usually from the corner) so that the home club can sell the next allocation if we don't take it. The second allocation is not on sale or return so RFC can't just take the full allocation until it is sure they will sell and so the ASTs and early purchasers HAVE to be in the first allocation under the current system. Hence the suggestion that would mean if the sales are enough for the full allocation the tickets would be sent out in the opposite order, with ASTs and early purchasers getting the last allocation not the first

[AF1]

Shirley then every other club in the country has this exact same 'problem' with away allocations? How have they solved it?

[Dirk Gently]

Shirley then every other club in the country has this exact same 'problem' with away allocations? How have they solved it?

They haven't. The attitude at most ofther clubs is "tough, that's how it is." There may not actually be a solution, but most clubs wouldn't even bother to try to find one.

[The 17 Bus]

One of the main problems has to be the shite area that many clubs give away fans, as for the AST getting poor seats, how about the club dig into the box and using a decent area remove the number of tickets for said area, as for sellingtickets earlier, all the club need, as has been said is the prices, then they can start selling, send out later by all means, but send out as soon as the tickets turn up, is that not an option?

[working class hero]

I'd like to know what these complaints are. As already stated I had no problems last season with where I was placed and haven't heard of anyone else complaining before.

The most frequent complaint was that the ASTs were often in the corner while those who bought late were behind the goal. The Fulham example was several ASTs were right against the river wall and could not see all of the pitch, whether sitting or standing

To be fair if you could only afford to go occasionally it would be just as unfair to be crammed in a poor seat. ASTs are lucky to have the time and cash to go to every game. They are, however, no more deserving of quality than a person who only goes to one away every 10 years.

[Magic_Shovel]

The whole premise of the the argument seems to be that the ASTs are the ones who are complaining. How many people are these? ~100 in 2000?

Well as far as I am concerned this is one of the few problems people have contacted me about rather than just moaning on HNA? So I take that as a problem that may need sorting. Added to that is the fact that the ticket office manager has also had sufficient complaints that he feels it is a problem to be sorted - hence a suggestion.

The solution was based on LI semi-final awy tickets where they used the 'take the money and send the tickets all together' worked for 10,000 at Twickenham with, despite the complaints on here. Royal Mail doing their part.

There are no issues with the current system I agree with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" view (if the Ticket Office manager feels there are sufficient complaints about this, what are the numbers in respect of Away Tickets sold last year, as I'd like to know how many complaints the Ticket Office needs on one issue in order to take action).

Secondly, can we shelve this London Irish example of the Ticket Office's one off capability to sell 10,000 tickets for an away game, at least until we are doing it on a regular basis (whether that be on return to the Premiership when away clubs have total 100,000+ capacity, or when the regular trip to Wembley for Semi-Final day becomes another complication in the fixture list)?