Aston Villa Away Fan Consultation Group January Meeting
We finally got the ‘official’ minutes back from the club from the Away Consultation Group meeting from a couple of weeks ago. One of the delays was due to the club not wanting to disclose the strategy of subsidising Sheffield Wednesday ticket prices, before Wednesday committed to a price.
Last season they set a price of £42 and may have done again, if they knew a subsidy was going to be forthcoming. Hopefully, the pressure from MOMS, Villa fans and the FSF put on them, made them drop prices to £39, which Villa then subsidised by £9 to £30 for an adult ticket.
MOMS presented several questions from fans regarding how away tickets are allocated and various categorisation issues.
Notes from meeting:
Away ticket consultation 23rd January 2018
Fan representatives: Anne Edwards, Tom Cole, Steve Gough, David Michael, Joanne McKibbens, Anton Cuscuito, Stewart Bladen (WM Police)
Club representatives: Bromley Davenport, Lee Preece
Upcoming games prices and allocations
Once Sheffield Wednesday confirmed the prices, members of the consultation group were contacted in order to confirm a price. The general thinking was that we should look to cap prices at £30 to match the Premier league maximum price.
An extra 1500 ticket allocation has been taken up, which means the £50k away fund has now been fully utilised for the season.
More on Sheffield Wednesday pricing
Disabled seating areas at away games
The Aston Villa Disable Supporter Association (AVDSA) have raised some questions in relation to disabled supporters and where they are seated at away games. Unless there is a designated disabled seating area we will commonly put disabled supporters in the front row so that they don’t have to stand up to see during games. There have been some issues with fans surging towards the front when we score and knocking people over. The club will have a look at what can be done.
Disable supporters were advised to highlight potential areas that may be more suitable at various stadiums, if they see any.
My Old Man Said provided some questions asked by supporters
I’m an away scheme member and want to buy a ticket for my daughter who doesn’t have much away booking history. How do I get her a seat near to me?
Away scheme members should contact the ticket office who will move your seat so that you are sat together but you would need to wait for her to meet the relevant booking criteria so this would be subject to availability.
A number of supporters are concerned about the potential price of Sheffield Wednesday tickets
We understand this and this has been addressed by the away consultation groups plans to subsidise the ticket prices
Is it possible for Lions club members to be seated together at away games?
Lions club tickets are sold in the same area already so these fans should be grouped together.
Away game sales criteria is too broad. I have 6 away games and am grouped together with fans who have only been to two games. Can this be looked at?
Ticketing criteria is always a contentious issue. Last year demand for away games was extremely high right from the start of the season, which meant that few games went to general sale and so towards the end of the season we typically had the same people going to each away game leading to criticism that away games had become a ‘closed shop’.
Fans who in some instances wanted to take their young children could not attend midweek games as they are in school the next day being unable to do this. The same goes for supporters who are on low incomes and cannot afford to attend many away games or people who have work commitments that prevent them from attending certain matches.
We also find that groups of friends may have gone to varying numbers of games so that some may have 2 more games attended which creates problems when they then wish to sit together.
Prior to games going on sale, the club are aware of how many people qualify for match tickets and we ensure that games cannot possibly sell out on the first set of sales criteria. Games that are in high demand with low ticket allocations such as Burton, Brentford and at the end of this season, Millwall will have the sales criteria tightened in order to ensure that fans who attend lots of away games are not.
Disabled supporter online ticketing
The club are hoping to launch online this soon and are in the final stages of testing.
(The next meeting will be held in March/April 2018.)
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Anyone recommend good pub before Fulham game? It’s been so hard to get tickets now we are on 3! Unfortunately grandsons birthday party for Wednesday game. I have often drank in the Railway pub just past the ground by the bridge. A wonderful pub very friendly but not recommended on match day. Big home pub.