Real Fans?

[Macy]

Originally posted by frano
I live in England so finacially every game is away game for me, taking that and annual holidays into account, I just budget for the full internationals. I am making an exception for the Brazil game though, as myself and a few brothers will be going.

There should be some system though, some kind of loyalty scheme. The current set up is totaly unfair.

Well then a loyalty scheme would have totally fúcked wouldn't it? If you don't go home friendlies? They'd have to count as much (perhaps more so) than home competitive games?

[Neil04]

No each game is given a certain value and the away games to places like faroes etc would count for more that say france away. It is called a travel club so it relates to away games only. The block booking scheme is not going to be scrapped cause there are too many people signed up to it already

[frano]

I take your point Macy, and it's a fair one.

But surely the average fans ability to attend games on a financial basis should be taken into account. Or we'd be in danger of saying you can only attend games if you earn X amount of disposable income. Football, at all levels, has been built on working class money for over a century, a point clubs and FA's tend to forget all too quickly imo.

I have been to only 2 or 3 friendlies in the last decade, but for full internationals, myself and thousands like me have paid hard earned money to support our country home and away.

So maybe it's a case of playing the percentages. This to include friendlies. Where if Ireland play, for the sake of arguement, 6 games in a year regardles of the games importance, those attending 4 or more will have top priority, 2 or 3 lower priority and so on.

I'm not saying this should be the way it's run, it's just an idea. The point is though Macy that most fans travelling seem to think the current set up is unfair. And I for one agree with them.

[Junior]

Originally posted by Macy
Well then a loyalty scheme would have totally fúcked wouldn't it? If you don't go home friendlies? They'd have to count as much (perhaps more so) than home competitive games?

I don't think they should count more, but perhaps equal to home competitive games.

Away games however would also be considered in the scoring.

[Neil04]

i think the away games shoudl be kept separate, and that it should be called the Travel Club and u sign up and you earn your points as i have outlined above like they do with the Tartan Army, THey have been doing this for ages and it has worked for them. THis data could then be used for home games when the availability comes up either through increased capacity or move to another stadium or whatever. At the moment the home games are sold out and that system is impossible to break up without causing anarchy. With the away games we have a blank canvass and the FAI should release a statment on their Website calling for fans interested in joing the travel club to join up. We then pay our fee of say 35 Euro every 2years to cover admin costs. We the get an application for for the first away match. So say we are playing cyprus away first game we all apply. Whatever our allocation is whoever applies gets a ticket and if demand outways supply lots are drawn and the "losers" are then guaranteed to get some for the next match. This should continue to happen until a pattern establishes itself after one campaign of people with high points and those with lesser points, This database should be then carried through till the next campaign. The issue of home friendlies does not come into it

[IrelandUnited]

If the FAI start to struggle to fill the New Lansdowne because of a run of failure or something we will see them worry about the real fan. Unless that happens they won't because its all the same to them who buys the ticket as long as they are sold.

I'm afraid to say that is the real picture.

[Slash/ED]

I goto every home friendlys, and any U21 matches in Dublin, which has been limited to the Albania Liam Miller one, but when the competitive matches roll around I never get near a ticket. The only competitive match i've been at in years is the 2-0 Georgia one, which I have to admit is something that písses me off. I'd love for some kind of loyalty scheme to be introduced but there's probably not much of a chance of that.

[Beavis]

I'm in the same often situation but the difference is I pay what I have to to the touts.Sad state of affairs but what else can I do?