Away match tickets - very restricted now

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Ricardo Da Lepp
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Away match tickets - very restricted now

Post by Ricardo Da Lepp »

Do many of you attend matches away from Elland Road?
If so, are you "regular" away fixture attenders?

I live in Norfolk and my ability to attend games is very limited.

I have been a member of the club since 1989. I've kept this up so that I can buy a ticket to an away fixture if it is happening in my part of the country. This season I took out a membership for my daughter, who is now old enough to come along. Our nearest Championship league ground is at Norwich and I wanted to go to this with her, especially as so many of her friends (and my colleagues at the practice) are Norwich fans.

The tickets went on sale on Thursday last week, but there is now some requirement to have attended 12 "qualifying" away fixtures last season. No use to me as it's only this game that I want to attend and can get to. This restriction wasn't made clear when I renewed / took out the membership either, which I think is not good practice.
I called the ticket office and was told it was something to do with limited away ticket allocations and that the restriction might be lifted after the tickets had been on sale for a week (if there were any left).

So my questions are :

Are other fans having difficulties getting to the away games they want to see?
Are away ticket allocations significantly reduced compared to previous seasons?
How likely is it that I could still buy tickets (legitimately!) for the Norwich game after the restricted purchase period is ended next Thursday?

Thanks for any advice re this issue.
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Another Northern Soul
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Re: Away match tickets - very restricted now

Post by Another Northern Soul »

It's the same for everyone I'm afraid, unless an Away Season Ticket Holder.

The club is on hiding to nothing with selling memberships as circumstances change quickly so there is no way they can say you need certain number of games to qualify for away tickets. It's frustrating for many of us. Derby yesterday - they wasted a few hundred seats for segregation purposes in the corner/their end, it was over the top. Difficult balance to get right but personally though DCFC got it wrong and lost revenue and we lost supporter numbers a tad.
jordiboy7
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Re: Away match tickets - very restricted now

Post by jordiboy7 »

I think the policy towards away tickets splits the fans a lot. I can see both sides to the argument. Rewarding supporters who travel frequently to away games with the away games tracker does make sense, but it does make it hard for people to build up their "away day loyalty" in order to get tickets to some games. In which case, how does the club make it "fairer" for other fans who want to get tickets to away games but can't due to the loyalty scheme?

I managed 8 away games last year, usually games of a larger allocation. Had to travel to London a few times to watch us play too. And if you're not online at 10:30 when the tickets are released, you've unfortunately got a slim chance of landing some. Some of the away games last year sold out in under 30 minutes.
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Another Northern Soul
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Re: Away match tickets - very restricted now

Post by Another Northern Soul »

jordiboy7 wrote:I think the policy towards away tickets splits the fans a lot. I can see both sides to the argument. Rewarding supporters who travel frequently to away games with the away games tracker does make sense, but it does make it hard for people to build up their "away day loyalty" in order to get tickets to some games. In which case, how does the club make it "fairer" for other fans who want to get tickets to away games but can't due to the loyalty scheme?

I managed 8 away games last year, usually games of a larger allocation. Had to travel to London a few times to watch us play too. And if you're not online at 10:30 when the tickets are released, you've unfortunately got a slim chance of landing some. Some of the away games last year sold out in under 30 minutes.
they can't make it fairer, I think that's basically the point. Just wait til the Prem years recommence :P

There's too many of us, it is that simple.
jordiboy7
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Re: Away match tickets - very restricted now

Post by jordiboy7 »

they can't make it fairer, I think that's basically the point. Just wait til the Prem years recommence :P

There's too many of us, it is that simple.
I think it'll have to be home and away season tickets when we make it back to the promised land!
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Another Northern Soul
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Re: Away match tickets - very restricted now

Post by Another Northern Soul »

jordiboy7 wrote:
they can't make it fairer, I think that's basically the point. Just wait til the Prem years recommence :P

There's too many of us, it is that simple.
I think it'll have to be home and away season tickets when we make it back to the promised land!
It already is, mate, it will be a proper 'mare for many of us for Aways :crazy: . Imagine the clamour if/when we're in the Prem, for the tiny grounds like Bournemouth etc.
Ricardo Da Lepp
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Re: Away match tickets - very restricted now

Post by Ricardo Da Lepp »

In the end one my Norwich supporting friends got us tickets but we had to make sure we didn't show we were Leeds fans. Like many others in the ground I suspect.
Having made arrangements to go, 3 days before the game, some unrestricted tickets were finally made available, and a timetable for what was to be released when was published. If I had known that was the case, I could have made a properly informed choice about whether to wait or not.
In the end it was probably better for us to be where we were as it was somewhat less intense for my daughter's first match. Plus we were right behind the net for Pablo's goal.

My feeling is that the club needs to make it clear with memberships that there will be other factors that apply to buying away tickets, which they hadn't done.

Also they need to develop an appreciation that our fan base is widespread and we can't all go to a lot of games. To that end, a geographical prioritisation of away tickets +/- being able to nominate your local away ground for the season to give you priority for that fixture, would be fairer.
I can appreciate that some really committed fans want to go to every away game, but they have the option of an away season ticket.

In the end we had a great day, my daughter really enjoyed the match, and now has 2 teams to follow!
She will always be a Leeds supporter and member first though......
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