Royalty Points Discussion

[Dirk Gently]

It still means that going to a pre-season friendly equates to more 'loyalty' in the eyes of the club than however many league games it takes to gain the same number of points.

Thats not rewarding loyalty and it's where the system falls down.

The way the club then set the boundaries for selling tickets is whole seperate problem which I think they've stuffed up again for the Arsenal game.

For the umteenth, umteenth time to the power of umteen, they do not measure "loyalty." Are they called "Loyalty Points?"

[Stranded]

It still means that going to a pre-season friendly equates to more 'loyalty' in the eyes of the club than however many league games it takes to gain the same number of points.

Thats not rewarding loyalty and it's where the system falls down.

The way the club then set the boundaries for selling tickets is whole seperate problem which I think they've stuffed up again for the Arsenal game.

For the umteenth, umteenth time to the power of umteen, they do not measure "loyalty." Are they called "Loyalty Points?"

As Dirk says they are not loyalty points - they are a measure of the amount of money invested by you in the club, that the club actually gets. The Feyernoord game was an extra game that was also a friendly and therefore of no interest to most people - so to make it more attractive to fans they offered a large number of points to tempt you in.

[Scarface]

The Feyernoord game was an extra game that was also a friendly and therefore of no interest to most people - so to make it more attractive to fans they offered a large number of points to tempt you in.

To make it more attractive, they could of made it free to season ticket holders or greatly reduced the prices.

[Dirk Gently]

The Feyernoord game was an extra game that was also a friendly and therefore of no interest to most people - so to make it more attractive to fans they offered a large number of points to tempt you in.

To make it more attractive, they could of made it free to season ticket holders or greatly reduced the prices.

They needed to make it more attractive so they could get money in to pay Feyenoord the guaranteed sum they needed for it to happen in the first place!

[Hoop Blah]

It still means that going to a pre-season friendly equates to more 'loyalty' in the eyes of the club than however many league games it takes to gain the same number of points.

Thats not rewarding loyalty and it's where the system falls down.

The way the club then set the boundaries for selling tickets is whole seperate problem which I think they've stuffed up again for the Arsenal game.

For the umteenth, umteenth time to the power of umteen, they do not measure "loyalty." Are they called "Loyalty Points?"

As Dirk says they are not loyalty points - they are a measure of the amount of money invested by you in the club, that the club actually gets. The Feyernoord game was an extra game that was also a friendly and therefore of no interest to most people - so to make it more attractive to fans they offered a large number of points to tempt you in.

Are Nectar points called loyalty points?

I couldn't care less what they called it, when they launched the scheme they refered to it as means to reward loyal fans with recognising their loyalty and using it to help in the fair allocation of tickets for the big games etc.

The club use it to differentiate amongst the fans to sell tickets, they accept that its a loyalty program, why can't you?

They want to use it to make sure that the most loyal fans get first dibs on tickets, and obviously like any savvy organisation they use that reward to drive sales as well. I don't have a big issue with that, its the modern world, but I do think they are over zealous in its use but I think they have the balance wrong and it SHOULD be rewarding loyalty more accurately than it is.

I can't understand the attitude of "its' royalty not loyalty" because it bloody well should be and thats the whole point!

[Hoop Blah]

The Feyernoord game was an extra game that was also a friendly and therefore of no interest to most people - so to make it more attractive to fans they offered a large number of points to tempt you in.

To make it more attractive, they could of made it free to season ticket holders or greatly reduced the prices.

They needed to make it more attractive so they could get money in to pay Feyenoord the guaranteed sum they needed for it to happen in the first place!

How about rewarding the faith and investment of the fans and absorbing the cost of a 'big' team into rest of the budget.

Surely the cost of the friendly is supposed to reflect the attraction. If Feyenoord weren't big enough to draw in the crowds then the club shouldn't have been willing to cough up such a large fee, they were conned and we had to pay for it.

[weybridgewanderer]

and to be honest it doesn't matter if its loyalty or royalty

in this case those with 600+ points all got a ticket iof they used their opportunity to buy one - all these people have been to lots of games, home and away

the next band went on first come first served
- all these pople have been to lots of games too

some got tickets some were unfortuate but supply outstrips demand

and people who have hardly been at any games never got a sniff at a ticket

is this not exactly how the scheme is supposed to work

we really can't get into the "i went to to derby and only gto 2 points while soemone who went to feynoord got 20. We all new that at the time. Nobody got any points for Bromley or the games in Sweden.... the list goes on

[Schards#2]

and to be honest it doesn't matter if its loyalty or royalty

in this case those with 600+ points all got a ticket iof they used their opportunity to buy one - all these people have been to lots of games, home and away

the next band went on first come first served
- all these pople have been to lots of games too

some got tickets some were unfortuate but supply outstrips demand

and people who have hardly been at any games never got a sniff at a ticket

is this not exactly how the scheme is supposed to work

we really can't get into the "i went to to derby and only gto 2 points while soemone who went to feynoord got 20. We all new that at the time. Nobody got any points for Burnley or the game sin Sweden.... the list goes on

None of which explains why it's neccessary to sell all of the tickets in just over 24 hours when you have 12 days in hand to do so.

[Stranded]

Because they knew they could? Why do major events do presales of 24 hours for eligible users? They do it because it works for 99% people and it's worked here.

If you know you can sell the tickets in just over a day surely then it makes sense to do so? The onus is on the purchaser not the seller if the seller has made everyone aware of the terms of salem which they have.

[weybridgewanderer]

and to be honest it doesn't matter if its loyalty or royalty

in this case those with 600+ points all got a ticket iof they used their opportunity to buy one - all these people have been to lots of games, home and away

the next band went on first come first served
- all these pople have been to lots of games too

some got tickets some were unfortuate but supply outstrips demand

and people who have hardly been at any games never got a sniff at a ticket

is this not exactly how the scheme is supposed to work

we really can't get into the "i went to to derby and only gto 2 points while soemone who went to feynoord got 20. We all new that at the time. Nobody got any points for Burnley or the game sin Sweden.... the list goes on

None of which explains why it's neccessary to sell all of the tickets in just over 24 hours when you have 12 days in hand to do so.

The club would never satisfy everybody. It has done its best, it has told everyone weeks ago when the selling window was so they could make arrangements.

Why do I want to increase my sales costs by selling over a longer period when I know I can sell in 24 hours? They could have just done a free for all. Tickets go on sale, first come first served and would have sold out in about 2 hours . They didn't. They have sold to the people with the most points and given them ample notice of their selling window. If that didn't suit you you were just unfortunate. Thats Life!

[Schards#2]

and to be honest it doesn't matter if its loyalty or royalty

in this case those with 600+ points all got a ticket iof they used their opportunity to buy one - all these people have been to lots of games, home and away

the next band went on first come first served
- all these pople have been to lots of games too

some got tickets some were unfortuate but supply outstrips demand

and people who have hardly been at any games never got a sniff at a ticket

is this not exactly how the scheme is supposed to work

we really can't get into the "i went to to derby and only gto 2 points while soemone who went to feynoord got 20. We all new that at the time. Nobody got any points for Burnley or the game sin Sweden.... the list goes on

None of which explains why it's neccessary to sell all of the tickets in just over 24 hours when you have 12 days in hand to do so.

The club would never satisfy everybody. It has done its best, it has told everyone weeks ago when the selling window was so they could make arrangements.

Why do I want to increase my sales costs by selling over a longer period when I know I can sell in 24 hours? They could have just done a free for all. Tickets go on sale, first come first served and would have sold out in about 2 hours . They didn't. They have sold to the people with the most points and given them ample notice of their selling window. If that didn't suit you you were just unfortunate. Thats Life!

Why would it increase the sales cost by selling over 3-4 days. Did they lay some staff off after the Arsenal tickets were sold?

[willz_royal]

do we get points for the match tonight?

[Hoop Blah]

do we get points for the match tonight?

It's not worth enough revenue to the club, so no.

[Platypuss]

It still means that going to a pre-season friendly equates to more 'loyalty' in the eyes of the club than however many league games it takes to gain the same number of points.

Thats not rewarding loyalty and it's where the system falls down.

The way the club then set the boundaries for selling tickets is whole seperate problem which I think they've stuffed up again for the Arsenal game.

For the umteenth, umteenth time to the power of umteen, they do not measure "loyalty." Are they called "Loyalty Points?"

H&P kindly copied the following relevant section from the RFC Customer Charter:

Member Card holders also receive Royalty Points (Reading FC's version of loyalty points). For high demand games, these points will allow the club to fairly allocate tickets based on supporter loyalty.

The "L" word seems to feature quite heavily, no?

[Woodcote Royal]

After seeing some of the issues regarding Royalty points I thought I would ask how many points people out there actually have

How many royalty points?

2004/05
Season ticket - 150
Away League games - 46
Home Cup games - 25 (2 x 10, 1 x 5)
Away Cup games - 4
Home friendly - 0 (before scheme in place)

2005/06
Season ticket - 140
Away League games - 46
Home Cup games - 50 (all 10s)
Away Cup games - 6
Home friendly - 5
STAR membership - 10
Handing out placards - 10?

2006/07
Season ticket - 195
STAR Membership - 10 points
Feyenoord (Friendly) - 20 points
Darlington (Carling Cup) - 20 points
Liverpool Away (Carling Cup) - 5 points
Burnley (FA Cup) - 10 points
Manchester United Away (FA Cup) - 5 points
14 Away Games (to Middlesbrough) - 70 points

Total - 827

So the current theoretical total before Arsenal Away is 827 Royalty Points

Actually it cannot be that, as Stoke City tickets were pay on the day, so we've never had those points

I am actually interested to see who has the most number of Royalty points out there? Anyone actually got over 820??

If we can get an idea of the number of points people have and the size of the bands then I am sure that some representation of this can be made to the Club.

I'm on 809 including the Man U replay & Arsenal and can think of several others who must be on a similar total.

I've only skimmed this thread but, IMHO, this is a decent system that contains one or two very solvable flaws.

Firstly, unless royalty points are only valid for a given period (I would suggest 3 to 5 years) it will always be an exclusive club with those on the outside waiting for dead mens feet to reach the front of the queue..........................new comers can't catch fans like me and the more games I can get tickets for which they can't, the further they fall behind.

Secondly, whilst I've been to most games this season home and away, I've missed 4 or 5 and passed my ticket on to those with less points.......................up goes my points total again whilst die hard fans like 2-0 get zip for their occasional loyalty

But seriously, we still need a system for STH's to pass on unwanted tickets and we have to put a sensible limit on how many seasons points can be carried over.

[Hoop Blah]

It still means that going to a pre-season friendly equates to more 'loyalty' in the eyes of the club than however many league games it takes to gain the same number of points.

Thats not rewarding loyalty and it's where the system falls down.

The way the club then set the boundaries for selling tickets is whole seperate problem which I think they've stuffed up again for the Arsenal game.

For the umteenth, umteenth time to the power of umteen, they do not measure "loyalty." Are they called "Loyalty Points?"

H&P kindly copied the following relevant section from the RFC Customer Charter:

Member Card holders also receive Royalty Points (Reading FC's version of loyalty points). For high demand games, these points will allow the club to fairly allocate tickets based on supporter loyalty.

The "L" word seems to feature quite heavily, no?

Thanks Platy, I knew I had seen it somewhere and thats worked wonders for my blood pressure.

[Dirk Gently]

So sue me!

[weybridgewanderer]

if anyone really wants to go ticket solutions currently have 8 tickets available

£175 each

http://www.ticketsolutions.co.uk/order.php?event_id=870

No royalty point requirement, no royalty points awarded

choose your event has hospitality available

http://www.chooseyourevent.com/MoreDetails.asp?id=4972

[Volvicanus]

I think it's fine that the club set the first and second day levels where some people who have fewer points might still get a ticket over someone that has more. I'm not tallking about someone with say 50 points getting a ticket over someone with 500, but if you have been a season ticket holder since these points were first introduced, you'd have ... what?.. about 550 points?? I see nothing wrong with giving these people a shot at getting a ticket just as much as someone with more who has gone to away games.

Supporting the team or the club is a choice. And I like to think that if you chose to go to away games, then you need to think of it solely as something you chose to do freely in order to get the pleasure of watching them, of the unique comraderie of away support, of seeing new places and new grounds - not for how many points you can get out of the deal. As it stands, you can get some points out of it - so consider it a lucky bonus. That way, you don't become a greedy bugger about it all, determined that only a select few get to watch Reading in the future or that somehow you are 'owed' something for deciding to watch Reading play. You are owed one thing - a match - and you get that.

[Spirit of Elm Park]

To put the cat amongst the pidgeons...

a) How much of this thread would have been completely avoided if those complaining had got a ticket?

or

b) Would those that did get a ticket, but would have missed out due to a, have started a similar thread?

or

c) This thread would have started whether 3, 300, 3000 or 30000 tickets were available?

I'll take a, agree with b, and totally agree with c.

Imagine how many hours/pounds this thread alone has cost British industry