Ticket Allocation

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Originally Posted by Cowboy

Thats simply not true, I know of long term block bookers who have been to away games who did not get tickets for Basle.
Imagine yourself in that situation as you meet someone from Eircom who is proudly boasting its their first Ireland game

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Thats because the allocation was tiny and the demand was huge. Nothing can be done if the home association have a small stadium and thus our allocation is small as well. As someone already said, it was one situation in the last ten years. It's a good example of why the FAI should have an official travel club based on loyalty.

Regards corporate tickets, every sport has to put up with that. I have sat longside plenty of knob heads at Lansdowne as well. One guy at the Romanian friendly last year tried to tell me that Shay Given was a Division 1 player. He then tried to engage me in conversation about the state of Limerick hurling. I told him to pi$$ off to croke park if he wanted to talk to someone about hurling. He left early. When I found out he was from Clare, it all made sense :D

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Originally Posted by 4tothefloor

Thats because the allocation was tiny and the demand was huge. Nothing can be done if the home association have a small stadium and thus our allocation is small as well.

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your original statement was "Regarding Basle, I think all those Block Bookers who have been going to away games for years got their tickets, so I don't see where the problem is."

I just pointed that that was untrue as GSpain has concurred if i read it correctly

...And I followed that statement with

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Originally Posted by 4tothefloor

It's a fact of life that ticket allocations to visiting nations are often small and thus not everyone can have a ticket, i.e. Faroes in the summer.

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Not everyone can have a ticket, even block bookers. Your point being?

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Originally Posted by stickyjoe

basle was a one off incident in the last 10 years. i was one of thousands left watching it in the pubs in basle. 13 of us had 1 ticket between us despite us having 13 block bookings and going to a lot of away matches.

the fact is that 3,200 tickets for a match like that simply cant satisfy demand among block bookers, away match only supporters, players, sponsors etc.

and as for sponsors getting tickets, its annoying but theres fcuk all we can do about that. there the ones putting the big money into it, they get their share of tickets as well which is the same in every other club/country in europe. it was a no win situation for the FAI

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12 months on from Basle 2003, we found ourselves in Basle again. Same 3200 tickets available, yet this time you could not give them away!

Cowboy mentioned the London Supportrs Club earlier. I heard for the 2003 Basle game they got less than 20 tickets, yet for the 2004 Basle game they got 140. Doesnt make sense.

as for wws "event Junkie theory". very easy coming from a guy who got one of the two between five of us who travelled. You haven't been at an away one since!

Away tickets in future should be based on a list of people who have previouyly travelled, not have a situation like Basel '03. Can the Fai even prove if block bookers attend the games on their ticket?... pound to a penny they cant. An awful lot of these are suit tickets.

i happen to get my tickets through the Pats supporters tickets on the north terrace. i am not guaranteed anything for swiss and france matches

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Originally Posted by 4tothefloor

...And I followed that statement with
Not everyone can have a ticket, even block bookers. Your point being?

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the point being that not all block bookers who attended away games got tickets for basle as you stated, following this with a statement as above does not alter this. If we are going to debate let us at least deal with the facts as they are.

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Originally Posted by Saint Tom

as for wws "event Junkie theory". very easy coming from a guy who got one of the two between five of us who travelled. You haven't been at an away one since!

Away tickets in future should be based on a list of people who have previouyly travelled, not have a situation like Basel '03. Can the Fai even prove if block bookers attend the games on their ticket?... pound to a penny they cant. An awful lot of these are suit tickets.

i happen to get my tickets through the Pats supporters tickets on the north terrace. i am not guaranteed anything for swiss and france matches

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your not making any coherent point here Saint Tom - apart from bitching about not getting a ticket to basle - get over it 3,000 tckts (i think) and more than 3,000 travelled - what did you expect????

The tickets should be limited on a first come first served basis to fans who have stubs home and away for a complete season in teh eircom league. Full Stop.

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Originally Posted by wws

The tickets should be limited on a first come first served basis to fans who have stubs home and away for a complete season in teh eircom league. Full Stop.

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There is no perfect solution here. As you have previously and correctly stated when demand excedes supply people are going to be left disappointed, it's as simple as that. No matter what solution the FAI or ourselves come up with regarding the fair distribution of tickets there are going to be people who think they can find a better way, but I have to say that your above idea makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. The idea that just because you follow a LOI club in some way entitles you to go and see the international side any time you want is ridiculous. The way I see it there are 2 separate issues here regarding tickets for Ireland matches. These are, tickets for home games and then tickets for away games. The two things do not necessarily have to be linked. As I stated in an earlier post, since I went to my first home game in 1991 I haven't missed any home games and yes, as a result of this I feel that I have earned my seat at the ground for want of a better way of putting it. I feel that fans who continually go to all the home international games are due that right. The hard part is getting on to the BB waiting list in the first place. While the capacity remains as limited as it is at present this will continue to be a problem. As for the away games I would suggest that the best way of dealing with this is simply keeping a record of the away games that people attend and much as there is a loyalty towards block bookers for home games they could simply give priority to the people that travel away the most.

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Originally Posted by Paulie

There is no perfect solution here. As you have previously and correctly stated when demand excedes supply people are going to be left disappointed, it's as simple as that. No matter what solution the FAI or ourselves come up with regarding the fair distribution of tickets there are going to be people who think they can find a better way, but I have to say that your above idea makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. The idea that just because you follow a LOI club in some way entitles you to go and see the international side any time you want is ridiculous. The way I see it there are 2 separate issues here regarding tickets for Ireland matches. These are, tickets for home games and then tickets for away games. The two things do not necessarily have to be linked. As I stated in an earlier post, since I went to my first home game in 1991 I haven't missed any home games and yes, as a result of this I feel that I have earned my seat at the ground for want of a better way of putting it. I feel that fans who continually go to all the home international games are due that right. The hard part is getting on to the BB waiting list in the first place. While the capacity remains as limited as it is at present this will continue to be a problem. As for the away games I would suggest that the best way of dealing with this is simply keeping a record of the away games that people attend and much as there is a loyalty towards block bookers for home games they could simply give priority to the people that travel away the most.

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Have to say i agree with pretty much everything there Paulie

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Originally Posted by Paulie

There is no perfect solution here. ....

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You put it much better than I could, excellent post Sir

Regarding Basle Sept 2004 last year i applied to the fai for 4 tickets i was told that they were over subscribled and got none. I purchased tickets on the swiss equivilent of ticket master and got tickets no problem. What infuriated me was when entering the stadium the irish end was half empty so my question is who got the tickets ?? travel companies or corporate boys not bothering to travel midweek another example of genuine fans missing out. I am sure there are others who got the response i got and did'nt travel.

I respect the priority should go to block bookers but there should be some kind of recognition to those of us who travel to all games not just the big ones its very easy to note who made it to such games as albania georgia etc

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Originally Posted by 4tothefloor

Not necessarily. Not everybody can afford to travel to the away games, neither financially or time-wise due to work commitments. Sometime in the future, I'll be able to go to all the away games, but as of now I just can't afford it for various reasons. The fact that you can go to away games doesn't entitle you to a home ticket any more than me i'm afraid.

In any case, the away day\travel clubs of most FA's and European clubs are completely seperate to the process of applying for tickets for home games. You'll find that season ticket holders will always get offered tickets first, and after that they are offered to fans based on loyalty for the competition in question. It never works the other way around, i.e. those who go to the away games get home tickets.

I think the system that Liverpool FC have introduced is the fairest and best. Each fan who wants to apply for tickets has to have a 'fan card', which is a credit-card type card that records all your ticket purchases. You then qualify for tickets through your loyalty rating on a competition by competition basis, i.e. applications for tickets for the FA cup semi-final will most likely fail if you've only been to premiership games, and vica versa\ditto for all other competitions. Maybe we might have the technology to do this in the new LR?

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I have to agree i go to all the home games (albeit with some struggle to get tickets I manage) I've only been to one away (France, Cyprus will be my 2nd) I wouldn't be able to go to every away game that shouldn't keep me away from home games though.
The only way to do things fairly would be a loyalty card like mentioned above. I mostly buy tickets off Block Bookers because they can't go or can't be arse whichever this still goes down on FAI system as this BB turned up so their getting rewarded for loyalty when their not arsed or can't go, why should I be denied tickets for not being able to afford to go to away games when I'm at every home game.

From reading the above it seems that plenty of people seem to have been upgraded to BB status having been on the waiting list so credit to the FAI for this, no?

I fully sympathise with people who want to go to all the games but can't. Just hang on in there I suppose, without sounding too smug.

What I really hate though is people of my generation (i,e., who have been following since the early 80's) and older who complain about not being able to get tickets.

In 1990 or 1991 the FAI gave people the option of going on the BB list by attending both (and subsequently due to low turn out either) of the home friendlies against USA and Switzerland. Each of these games only half sold out despite excellent publicity of the start of the BB scheme. I have no sympathy for people who had this option but declined to take it.

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Originally Posted by Duffer

why should I be denied tickets for not being able to afford to go to away games when I'm at every home game.

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Nobody as far as I know is suggesting that you should be denied tickets.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

F

In 1990 or 1991 the FAI gave people the option of going on the BB list by attending both (and subsequently due to low turn out either) of the home friendlies against USA and Switzerland. Each of these games only half sold out despite excellent publicity of the start of the BB scheme. I have no sympathy for people who had this option but declined to take it.

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Very true , lots of people declined this option.

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

From reading the above it seems that plenty of people seem to have been upgraded to BB status having been on the waiting list so credit to the FAI for this, no?

I fully sympathise with people who want to go to all the games but can't. Just hang on in there I suppose, without sounding too smug.

What I really hate though is people of my generation (i,e., who have been following since the early 80's) and older who complain about not being able to get tickets.

In 1990 or 1991 the FAI gave people the option of going on the BB list by attending both (and subsequently due to low turn out either) of the home friendlies against USA and Switzerland. Each of these games only half sold out despite excellent publicity of the start of the BB scheme. I have no sympathy for people who had this option but declined to take it.

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Im one of those who have been supporting Ireland since late 70's and attended both the games you mention. NOt sure why but I was never aware of the offer made to join the BB at that time or else i would have done so :(

I joined the waiting list a good few years back and am number 386 on it now. Always took up tickets when offered them (mainly for friendlies) but didn't get the offer for the Brazil series of matches until after the closing date for sending it back and in the meantime I bought tickets through Ticketmaster. Haven't got offered tickets by FAI since but managed to get them through other sources. Had a word with Emma and she now has me back on the list for getting offered tickets. Hoepfully might get on the BB soon.

I think away tickets should be allocated on the basis of someone's record of attending away games. It's only fair. Been to about 15 away matches myself over the years. I can't get to as many as some people on this site and probably would be way down the list for away tickets based on my record but I still think it's the fairest way of allocating away match tickets.

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Originally Posted by Dotsy

Im one of those who have been supporting Ireland since late 70's and attended both the games you mention. NOt sure why but I was never aware of the offer made to join the BB at that time or else i would have done so :(

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Unlucky Dotsy! It was all over the papers at the time.

C'est la vie. Have to admit I have been lucky over the last couple of years with tickets from various other sources :) . Hopefully it will continue until I can finally make it onto the BB scheme.

Originally Posted by Cowboy
with respect thats total nonsense, everybody makes choices, some sarcrifice a lot to go to away games and those that do on a regular basis are more entitled to go to home games than those that do not.

Originally Posted by Duffer
why should I be denied tickets for not being able to afford to go to away games when I'm at every home game.

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Originally Posted by Cowboy

Nobody as far as I know is suggesting that you should be denied tickets.

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I think you are deliberately misrepresenting what I said, theres little point in debating you further.

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Originally Posted by Duffer

Originally Posted by Cowboy
with respect thats total nonsense, everybody makes choices, some sarcrifice a lot to go to away games and those that do on a regular basis are more entitled to go to home games than those that do not.

Originally Posted by Duffer
why should I be denied tickets for not being able to afford to go to away games when I'm at every home game.

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