Hmmmm.

[BartleyYeltz]

My person opinion is that the club will know the names of the fans who are loyal and will do right be them.cant be more then 150-175 tickets available in the ballot anyway.

[drummyb]

My person opinion is that the club will know the names of the fans who are loyal and will do right be them.cant be more then 150-175 tickets available in the ballot anyway.

Not sure how that would work tbh. I dont see how they can know the names of 'loyal' fans and who judges loyalty?

[Josh1873]

My person opinion is that the club will know the names of the fans who are loyal and will do right be them.cant be more then 150-175 tickets available in the ballot anyway.

Who judges loyalty?

I know going to the odd game, entering a ballot and 'wining' a ticket, only to try and sell it for a profit isn't loyal! But I do understand your point. There's many ways to judge loyalty, but it's also a very subjective thing. It's not something I'd want to try and define.

The club have been placed in a very difficult situation where some fans were always gonna be disappointed and feel aggrieved at not getting a ticket. But I'm seeing people who I know for a fact those who can make decisions to 'award' tickets in a ballot know personally but have missed out on tickets and go to the majority of the games. Such people would probably accept not being selected if they weren't seeing part time fans who only go to these sort of 'big games' get hold of tickets (although, I'm not sure how they know they're part time fans, just going off a number of Tweets I've seen and Facebook posts I've been shown).

It's a thankless task, and I feel for the club as they're in a no-win situation. But that being said, I do feel it could have been handled slightly better. For the record I'm a season ticket holder, and was able to get a ticket, so I'm not personally affected.

[BartleyYeltz]

I agree with most points but I keep seeing tweets saying the club could have done more, but how?
I really don’t know what they could have done differently.

[Josh1873]

I agree with most points but I keep seeing tweets saying the club could have done more, but how?
I really don’t know what they could have done differently.

The idea I have in my mind is that the club were correct to go through a ballot route, but I see no reason as to why someone involved within the club couldn't have taken a look at the names just before drawing them and pull out any names they recognised as being regulars. For example, I know one lad missed out on a ticket and he goes to every away game and has done for a few years now, mostly on the coach, too, I am certain his name would have been recognised. It wouldn't have been difficult to remove him from the ballot and email him as being successful. I know that isn't fool proof, and creates issues, but at least you're recognising loyal fans who attend and deserve a ticket.

It's the Yeltz, most people know the hardcore 100 or so core regulars that go to away games regularly.

[Tranter78]

Stourbr*dge have delayed their general public sales

[Josh1873]

Stourbr*dge have delayed there general public sales

It is a farcical situation. I think I'd sooner see the game postponed until a reasonable alternative be found. I.e Stourbr*dge sort their issues out with the Council and get their ground fit for purpose, or find an alternative venue that can host the game safely that has capacity to host 2-3,000 people, than go ahead with a very limited capacity and a very real threat that trouble will be caused because Yeltz fans have managed to get tickets in the home end. Surely that's in the best interests of both clubs, especially Stourbr*dge in terms of revenue they're losing out on.

I have absolutely no doubt the Council have been useless and are to blame for the lack of movement in rectifying the issues with the Shed End. But I refuse to believe this is the only and/or best alternative that Stourbr*dge could come up with. Poor from them. I can't get my head around it personally. It just seems unnecessary.

[fairweatherfan]

Speaking as someone who has done his fair share of away games over the past few years and didn’t get a ticket (serves me right for not bothering with a season ticket I guess), it’s hard not to feel sorry for the club in all this. Whatever we’d have done they’d have been panned, and while it would be easy to then train my opprobrium on Stourbr*dge, without knowing all the details, that would feel a smidgen harsh too.

That said, would it have really been so difficult to explain why reversing the fixtures was a non-starter?

Cope: the home game had a shite atmosphere last year anyway, and the super packed out games make it a much less enjoyable experience too.

[Brightgoldenhaze]

I probably go to an average of 25 games a season, so am far from the most committed fan who won't have got a ticket, but it sticks in the throat a bit that people who have never seen us play, or have only ever seen us play Stourbr*dge, could be going on Saturday.

It's partly my own fault because it would make sense for me to at least get the flexi season ticket but I can't help thinking the club could have done a bit more.

Nothing would be perfect but it's possible to show you have been to some away games e.g. Redditch, because the tickets are sold online so people will have proof. So some preference could have been given to people who could show they've been away this season (or more than just Kidderminster, anyway).

Or, for example, preference could be given if you can show you've been to x number of home games. You could probably only do that by showing match programmes which I accept is slightly flawed because a lot of people don't buy them, but it's still fairer than a general ballot.

On a wider point, maybe it's time the club starting selling tickets online? If nothing else, it would enable people to build up a purchasing history should anything like this happen again.

[HalesowenHarry]

I must be the only one thinking I wished I couldn't have got a ticket to go to that shithole. But then again I'm not going anyway!