Notts County Ticket Issue Explained

https://gtfc.co.uk/notts-county-ticket-issue-explained/



Fake news..........

What about only available to seson ticket holders, but they had expired (online) and had to be re dated !


I do not want staggered sales when demand will be greater than tickets (Wrexham) The only fair way is a ballot !

Well done to the club reacting fairly quickly and giving explanations and actually giving some sort of apology.

I do feel for those fans who've travelled alot to follow Gtfc but its just what it is sadly.

If the statement doesn’t have a woe is me, narcissistic, blame the fans tone, with Stockwood and petitt purchased on a snooker table it doesn’t count…

In all seriousness, at least they’ve acknowledged the farce…

Just watch it on tv.

You can't stagger the release for over-subscribed games as that gives one group of supporters a significantly unfair advantage.

The demand on our ticketing system wasn't even that much in the grand scheme of the internet so whoever is in charge of making sure it meets demand failed today and needs a bøllôckîng.

It's 2022, get them all online and be done with it. Anyone too old should have an account created and linked with a trusted friend or family member. Like others have said, these people get to games that are online only which proves the point that they can find a way to do it.

At least it’s an apology but as risk of stating obvious people standing in a queue do isn’t overwhelm the ticketing system.Failure of the ticketing system leaves then standin in a queue.

Online only. Use a third party company if needs be, I appreciate booking fees etc but the chances of it not crashing when 2000 blokes from the east coast wanna got to the playoffs is slim…

Staggered sales is BS. Say we beat Notts and Wrexham tickets have to be sold. Which ever of online or in person is prioritised will sell out completely & the other set of fans will miss out entirely. All online. Everyone will have an equal chance of getting tickets. Wrexham are already selling Semi-Final tickets and they aren't doing any physical sales. It's online only. It's 2022 and that is the way things are now. We should catch up.

Yes, they've apologised and made a stab at a solution, but they are too close to the problem to appreciate just how frustrating and full of holes the current system is.

As others have already said, online only, with or without ballots, is fairer to working folk and exiles. The current tactics encourage gaming the system and causing great stress to office staff. Forcing people to queue in the street is tin pot. Trying to retain this vestige of 'serving the local community' and giving a nod to improving access to those in digital poverty might read well in the Guardian but fails on all other metrics.

The office already know which STH's attend most games and their post codes, so let's have a system which rewards those who support the club through thick and thin.

I thought that the club had decided to use an outside company that was why there was a booking fee.

Whichever was chosen, clearly not fit for purpose and whoever chose it should be bollocked.

Quoted from Croxton

Yes, they've apologised and made a stab at a solution, but they are too close to the problem to appreciate just how frustrating and full of holes the current system is.

As others have already said, online only, with or without ballots, is fairer to working folk and exiles. The current tactics encourage gaming the system and causing great stress to office staff. Forcing people to queue in the street is tin pot. Trying to retain this vestige of 'serving the local community' and giving a nod to improving access to those in digital poverty might read well in the Guardian but fails on all other metrics.

The office already know which STH's attend most games and their post codes, so let's have a system which rewards those who support the club through thick and thin.

I note that Notts County use a Ticketmaster solution for their sales. Not a company I admire by any means, but they certainly have experience in managing ticket sales for events of high interest.

I recently bought tickets for the Fury v Whyte fight at Wembley, which were sold by Ticketmaster. The tickets went on sale at 10am but as far as I can tell you were assigned a somewhat random place in the queue. I ended up in position 150,000 something on my laptop at then a minute later somewhere around the 30,000 mark on my phone.

It seemed a relatively fair system, effectively combining a first come, first served system with the randomness of a ballot. You still had to be on the ball, but you didn’t automatically miss out if you were running 5 minutes late.

Anyway, that’s something for the club to consider for the future. IF we make it through to Wrexham, there’s realistically too little time to make any sweeping changes to the existing ticketing system. I think the simplest thing to do at short notice is probably to make it online only, but that won’t please everyone.

One potential saving grace is that the 12:30 kick-off and six hour return journey, coupled with the game being on TV, might temper demand ever so slightly, but regardless 1,200 tickets are going to be snapped up pretty quickly.

Wonder if Andrew Newman got one?

Re allocations in general, living near Selby, I saw on our Look North tonight that Sheffield Utd only got 2000 tickets out of a 30,000 capacity at Notts Forest, so that’s not very generous either. Maybe the influence of Notts police again?

Ticket master are great, failed to send me my Wembley tickets (booked nearly 2 weeks before) when we won the playoffs which resulted in going all the way down there on the day not knowing if they would issue them in person or say sorry someone else has had them?

Quoted from lee65

Re allocations in general, living near Selby, I saw on our Look North tonight that Sheffield Utd only got 2000 tickets out of a 30,000 capacity at Notts Forest, so that’s not very generous either. Maybe the influence of Notts police again?

Forest have been selling out every game this season. If they increased the away allocation that would just mean Forest fans who attend games regularly missing out.

The club should sell ALL tickets for important matches like this online and begin utilising the loyalty point system they already have set up in the background (login to the ticket website -> click view my details -> click the tab named 'loyalty' - I've apparently already got 500 points) to release tickets in stages to supporters based on accumulated points. That way the most dedicated supporters who have season tickets and go to the most away games will accumulate the most points and have the best chance of getting tickets for the most in demand fixtures. This nonsense with in person Vs online sales needs to stop as it's completely unfair on anyone who lives outside the town or can't get out of work to visit the ticket office on a Tuesday morning.

Quoted from Poojah

I note that Notts County use a Ticketmaster solution for their sales. Not a company I admire by any means, but they certainly have experience in managing ticket sales for events of high interest.

I recently bought tickets for the Fury v Whyte fight at Wembley, which were sold by Ticketmaster. The tickets went on sale at 10am but as far as I can tell you were assigned a somewhat random place in the queue. I ended up in position 150,000 something on my laptop at then a minute later somewhere around the 30,000 mark on my phone.

It seemed a relatively fair system, effectively combining a first come, first served system with the randomness of a ballot. You still had to be on the ball, but you didn’t automatically miss out if you were running 5 minutes late.

Anyway, that’s something for the club to consider for the future. IF we make it through to Wrexham, there’s realistically too little time to make any sweeping changes to the existing ticketing system. I think the simplest thing to do at short notice is probably to make it online only, but that won’t please everyone.

One potential saving grace is that the 12:30 kick-off and six hour return journey, coupled with the game being on TV, might temper demand ever so slightly, but regardless 1,200 tickets are going to be snapped up pretty quickly.

You have my sympathy. The undercard was an absolute disgrace & the main event was a bore-fest with Fury taking zero risks.

Just a polite reminder to the Fentyites on here that the ticketing system was actually in place for the start of the 2020/21 season but was never used because of COVID.

Quoted from Poojah

I note that Notts County use a Ticketmaster solution for their sales. Not a company I admire by any means, but they certainly have experience in managing ticket sales for events of high interest.

I recently bought tickets for the Fury v Whyte fight at Wembley, which were sold by Ticketmaster. The tickets went on sale at 10am but as far as I can tell you were assigned a somewhat random place in the queue. I ended up in position 150,000 something on my laptop at then a minute later somewhere around the 30,000 mark on my phone.

It seemed a relatively fair system, effectively combining a first come, first served system with the randomness of a ballot. You still had to be on the ball, but you didn’t automatically miss out if you were running 5 minutes late.

Anyway, that’s something for the club to consider for the future. IF we make it through to Wrexham, there’s realistically too little time to make any sweeping changes to the existing ticketing system. I think the simplest thing to do at short notice is probably to make it online only, but that won’t please everyone.

One potential saving grace is that the 12:30 kick-off and six hour return journey, coupled with the game being on TV, might temper demand ever so slightly, but regardless 1,200 tickets are going to be snapped up pretty quickly.

I've participated in a few cryptocurrency presales that operated on this basis and it's very fair. You login early and anyone who meets a specific eligibility criteria gets a random place in the queue at the go live time.

In our instance it would allow mates/families to link their accounts together and then join the queue separately giving themselves 4 chances of getting through the queue. It has its flaws, I've had it going on Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Brave and then my phone before to essentially give myself 5 chances of getting a low enough place in the queue.

It's certainly a fair system and probably not one the club could implement in time for a possible game in Wrexham next weekend.

York sold their away allocation of 650 I think it was against Brackley in 2 minutes last week. If we can't sell 1200 tickets online for Wrexham next week (if we get there) without the website crashing then our ticket system isn't fit for purpose.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

Forest have been selling out every game this season. If they increased the away allocation that would just mean Forest fans who attend games regularly missing out.

Fair point Golly, but assumed some minimum % in place for the away Team in the playoffs, but maybe not  

Quoted from Chrisblor

The club should sell ALL tickets for important matches like this online and begin utilising the loyalty point system they already have set up in the background (login to the ticket website -> click view my details -> click the tab named 'loyalty' - I've apparently already got 500 points) to release tickets in stages to supporters based on accumulated points. That way the most dedicated supporters who have season tickets and go to the most away games will accumulate the most points and have the best chance of getting tickets for the most in demand fixtures. This nonsense with in person Vs online sales needs to stop as it's completely unfair on anyone who lives outside the town or can't get out of work to visit the ticket office on a Tuesday morning.

I would be inclined to go purely down the route of loyalty points. Season Ticket holders would lose their automatic first dibs but the system could be set-up to give STHs an automatic advantage.

Something like 1 point per match ticket bought. Season Ticket holders could be given something like 5 points when they buy a ST and then have 1 point added after every home game.

Under this system a season ticket holder who hadn't been to a single away game would be on 27 points (5 points + 22 points). An exile who's done 30 matches in total split between home and away game would be on 30 points.

When you get a restricted allocation like Notts County, the club would know exactly what loyalty points total to set the qualification at. e.g. There might be 1,800 fans with 32 points or more so they get offered 1 guaranteed ticket each. Any remaining tickets are then offered to people with slightly less points on a first come first serve basis until all tickets are sold. Simple and fair.

Quoted from lee65

Fair point Golly, but assumed some minimum % in place for the away Team in the playoffs, but maybe not  

It's easier to justify increased away allocations when there's 2 legs as it done on a reciprocal basis, but I don't see how Forest could justify giving SU more than the minimum to be honest.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

I would be inclined to go purely down the route of loyalty points. Season Ticket holders would lose their automatic first dibs but the system could be set-up to give STHs an automatic advantage.

Something like 1 point per match ticket bought. Season Ticket holders could be given something like 5 points when they buy a ST and then have 1 point added after every home game.

Under this system a season ticket holder who hadn't been to a single away game would be on 27 points (5 points + 22 points). An exile who's done 30 matches in total split between home and away game would be on 30 points.

When you get a restricted allocation like Notts County, the club would know exactly what loyalty points total to set the qualification at. e.g. There might be 1,800 fans with 32 points or more so they get offered 1 guaranteed ticket each. Any remaining tickets are then offered to people with slightly less points on a first come first serve basis until all tickets are sold. Simple and fair.

Season ticket holders should ALWAYS get first dibs because they give the club a nice chunk of income up front at the start of the season. Away tickets bring very little revenue in, I think the club can claim a small percentage for the administration of selling them.

Quoted from GollyGTFC

It's easier to justify increased away allocations when there's 2 legs as it done on a reciprocal basis, but I don't see how Forest could justify giving SU more than the minimum to be honest.

I’m with you on this and to be fair, why would a home side in a game as important as a play off game want to allow lots of away fans in? You’d give them the smallest allocation possible, regardless of potential empty seats in the home end…anything to stop the away side having an advantage…

Maybe there was a bit of an oversight on the amount of people who would queue for tickets and they didn't want to potentially turn away those that had physically made it. Not sure why anyone would queue for 3 hours when you can order online in a couple of minutes.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

Season ticket holders should ALWAYS get first dibs because they give the club a nice chunk of income up front at the start of the season. Away tickets bring very little revenue in, I think the club can claim a small percentage for the administration of selling them.

STHs would get first dibs under the system I suggested. The system would be heavily weighted in the favour of STHs who attend away matches. It would also rank STHs so that the ones who go to away games get first priority and don't miss out to a STH who hasn't been to any or only a few away matches. But it would also allow non-STHs who attend the vast majority of games to jump ahead of STHs who haven't been to an away game.

Quoted from Marinerdeano

Maybe there was a bit of an oversight on the amount of people who would queue for tickets and they didn't want to potentially turn away those that had physically made it. Not sure why anyone would queue for 3 hours when you can order online in a couple of minutes.

Read the original thread then you will know why and that the problem wasn’t the number wiring would all have been served and gone in an hour if the ticketing system worked. When onlin sales where switched off at 10.30 more came down.

The club don't make any money from people going to away games. Season tickets are a huge part of our income. Why would we prioritise someone who's been to hardly any home games over someone who committed their money at the start of the season without knowing how the season would pan out? I say that as someone who is an exile and doesn't have a season ticket.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

The club don't make any money from people going to away games. Season tickets are a huge part of our income. Why would we prioritise someone who's been to hardly any home games over someone who committed their money at the start of the season without knowing Joe the season would pan out? I say that as someone who is an exile and doesn't have a season ticket.

I agree. Season ticket holders should always get priority regardless of how many away games they have been to.

Season tickets are the life blood of a football team, especially at the level we are at.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

The club don't make any money from people going to away games. Season tickets are a huge part of our income. Why would we prioritise someone who's been to hardly any home games over someone who committed their money at the start of the season without knowing Joe the season would pan out? I say that as someone who is an exile and doesn't have a season ticket.

I know it never got to it so it's immaterial but people who bought 2 adults and 2 kids tickets for £20 when our play off place was a virtual certainty were going to be entitled to 4 tickets at the same time 1878 members who forked out £25 per membership on Thursday morning. That's not right either...

Quoted from GollyGTFC

STHs would get first dibs under the system I suggested. The system would be heavily weighted in the favour of STHs who attend away matches. It would also rank STHs so that the ones who go to away games get first priority and don't miss out to a STH who hasn't been to any or only a few away matches. But it would also allow non-STHs who attend the vast majority of games to jump ahead of STHs who haven't been to an away game.

That doesn't sit comfortably with me, season ticket holders should NEVER have people be able to jump ahead of them in priority queues. A major perk of having a season ticket is knowing you have that priority for the big games.

Quoted from jamesgtfc

I know it never got to it so it's immaterial but people who bought 2 adults and 2 kids tickets for £20 when our play off place was a virtual certainty were going to be entitled to 4 tickets at the same time 1878 members who forked out £25 per membership on Thursday morning. That's not right either...

Agree with that. I'm an 1878 member and a Trust member. I paid for my kids to be 1878 members for the ticket priority although it was full price so the 6th free ticket didn't even nearly cover the cost. Seemed really unfair that a cheap ticket to Boreham Wood was considered of equal value.

Quoted from Rodley Mariner

Agree with that. I'm an 1878 member and a Trust member. I paid for my kids to be 1878 members for the ticket priority although it was full price so the 6th free ticket didn't even nearly cover the cost. Seemed really unfair that a cheap ticket to Boreham Wood was considered of equal value.

Yep I paid for 1878 too which was mostly for the priority.

STH should always get priority over everyone else, the club depends on their money AND they stump up up front before the season starts when their is no guarantee of how we will do. That has to be rewarded its common sense and business sense too. I accept that and I'm not a STH.

3 points to sort this...

1. STH get first dibs, always...
2. All high demand one-off game sales to be online only; non IT literate STH can nominate a trusted person to buy for them
3. 1878 members accumulate points credited for each home match ticket bought and then time slots are allocated for online purchases based upon bands of points earned (might need the IT system tweaking). Trust members rank after all 1878 members.

1878 membership seems to be potentially a good system for exiles and others who can't commit to a ST and it just needs tweaking so those that buy more tickets should benefit more from it. Prioritising ticket purchasers from particular games should be scrubbed - all prioritisation should go through 1878 membership.

Whatever regarding the loyalty system, they need to come up with some solution for Wrexham if we get through because that will be chaos if you through in the extra demand (weekend game) and reduced supply.

I think they should issue Wrexham tickets (if we get there) to season ticket holders in alphabetical order!  

This site will be busier than the ticket portal.

https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll

Quoted from ivanosandwich

This site will be busier than the ticket portal.

https://www.gov.uk/change-name-deed-poll

Andy Aadvark has a nice ring to it.  

Quoted from Les Brechin

I think they should issue Wrexham tickets (if we get there) to season ticket holders in alphabetical order!  

Thank god my birth name is Abi Abington 👀

Quoted from Les Brechin

Andy Aadvark has a nice ring to it.  

Aaron Aarronson will be popular