Aston Villa Away Season Ticket
On the 23rd of June 2017, MOMS emailed the club on behalf of several supporters asking about the potential for an Aston Villa ‘Away season ticket’. The curious Villa supporters were living outside of Birmingham and didn’t have home season tickets. Home games were like away games for them in terms of travel, but they preferred the atmosphere of actual away game trips. So if their budget allowed for one or the other, they would prefer an ‘Aston Villa away season ticket’.
It was really just a case of throwing an ideal out there.
The club’s initial thoughts were that in theory it could be created but their main concern was home season ticket holders would miss out on tickets to non-season ticket holders (or away season ticket holders as such) and this would cause some animosity. Also, a lot of people who buy a home season ticket do so because away game priority is the deal clincher.
A year later, almost to the day, Aston Villa have announced an ‘Away Season Ticket’.
The New Away Deal
First of all, for the record, this is the first MOMS has heard about it since receiving an email a year ago. An Aston Villa away season ticket has never been mentioned at meetings of both the Fan Consultation Group or the Away Consultation Group.
The first distinction of the away season ticket is you have to be a 2018/19 home season ticket to be eligible. So, the supporters that originally asked about the possibility of an away season ticket are out of luck.
The club in its announcement on their website lists the following as benefits:
- Choose your own seat/s – subject to sales order determined by the opposition
- Choose which games you wish to attend – no need to be charged for all and claim a refund
- No restrictions on the number of games you attend
- Select which concessions you require based on the criteria for the game
- The only way to guarantee a ticket for away games
- Supporters have dedicated sales window to purchase tickets
It also states:
All away scheme members from the 2017/18 season have been contacted and are invited to join the away season ticket membership at a cost of £25 per person – this is available until Friday 29th June.
For new supporters wishing to join, the cost is £40 per person – this is available from Monday 2nd July.
Cost
The politics of away ticket allocations has often been contentious with issues such as Lions Club’s allocations and complaints about the away day scheme.
Is this away season ticket method fair? To be honest, MOMS based on the above info isn’t 100% sure how it works in practice. Can we assume the ability to ‘chose your own seat’ can be done online?
What about supporters who attended most of the away games last season, are they now forced to buy an away season ticket, not to slip behind in terms of priority access?
So what do current away scheme members or normal season ticket holders think of this Aston Villa Away Season Ticket? Drop us a line in the comments below, on social media or via email at contact@myoldmansaid.com
As stated earlier, the Aston Villa Fan Consultation Group wasn’t consulted about this, thus we didn’t have a chance to gather supporter feelings and ideas about it.
So, please do give us your opinions and concerns over the initiative.
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make that 8k of glory hunters actually
i wasn’t in away scheme and still went to 21 out of 23 games away from home, including blues, i’m not bothered about this, more bothered about people who get to go to wembley having been two 3 villa home games all season, that is more unfair than this
Last season it was very difficult to get any away tickets. Example yu had to have gone to 15 away games to get a ticket for the last game! So if you fork out another £40 are you guaranteed a ticket for every away game as stated. Well some give less than 2000 allocation. So will they limit the away season tickets to 2000? We have been the best away supported team in englad for the last 2 years so loyalty will go out the window. Now you pay. Maybe Mr xai has already spent this money too. I just hope my season ticket money is safe. He has obviously already spent it. God help us. I’ll be happy if we fullfill our fixtures now.
Away allocation at Boro away was fair, those of us who got 15 away stubs deserved to go. Villa fans talk about loyalty – our average gate is 32k, take away 2k away fans leaves around 30k, who go to majority of home games. 6k supporters got a ticket to wembley having been between 1 and 3 games all year. They got a great deal despite their terrible lack of loyalty to the club. I don’t know any other club who have won as many trophies as us where you would get a wembley seat having been to just 3 games. The only teams who have won more trophies than us, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Chelsea have waiting lists for season tickets and away match season tickets. We are not as great as we think we are as a group of supporters. At least 10 away games went to general sale last season. So if you really wanted to go away you could. Lots of you think you have a divine right to tickets without putting in the hard yards like trips to Barnsley or Brentford on a Tuesday night. Most Villa fans don’t go to half their teams matches. We are not that loyal. Stop moaning. You can get a ticket for every away game now, just pay 40 quid. But you won’t. You just want an opportunity to moan. Like most Villa fans.