Nothing is guaranteed in life, yet you can always count on United’s ticket office to dream up new and unique ways to make life as difficult as possible for their customers. I honestly can’t think of another commercial enterprise in the world so dedicated to inconveniencing the public it purports to serve. Over several years we’ve seen the implementation of increasingly controlling measures designed to “combat touting”. Neither digitised tickets nor random collections have led to a decrease in tickets being offered at inflated prices online, but rather than target the actual touts the club appears to be solely fixated on attacking supporters.
Aside from another price increase, the main takeaway from the ST renewal email that went out last month was the news that if your ticket isn’t scanned for 3 games next season then the club reserves the right to take it away. Doesn’t matter if the weather, illness, train strikes, work commitments or family bereavements get in the way. You either attend 17 out of 19 games (or return or donate your ticket blah, blah…) or you’re out on the ear. On face value it’s baffling to think why they’d go out of their way to impose such a draconian rule, but I think I can guess what their ultimate goal is here.
I’m convinced that the motive behind this purge on the basic freedoms of ST holders is to make us think “bollocks to this, I cba with it anymore” until such a point where we eventually give it up. 52,000 season tickets is the highest in the PL and the club know they can steadily increase revenue if they gradually reduce this number. With seats back in the hands of the club they’d be free to sell them for a premium on a game by game basis. They would deny this of course, and point towards the ST waiting list and sales to members as evidence, but slowly but surely their aim is to increase the allocation available to 1-2 game a season punters who’ll happily pay a few hundred quid for what’s described as an “exec” package.
After moving all ST’s to digital in 2021, they’ll be a further change this summer with everyone now obliged to download United’s app – ST’s will no longer be compatible with regular wallet apps where they can easily be forwarded to other phones or screenshotted. The recent trial at the Luton home game threw up a couple of interesting findings. Whilst tickets in the United app can’t be screenshotted (a message pops up informing you of this when attempted), a mate tried taking a photo of the barcode on another phone and scanning it at the turnstiles. Incredibly, this worked as they are still using regular 2D static codes as opposed to the rotating, dynamic type now favoured by the likes of Ticketmaster.
So there we have it. Months of planning and who knows how many thousands of pounds developing a convoluted new system that benefits precisely nobody, yet it took about 2 minutes to figure out a way around the additional security. As a mate amusingly remarked in the WhatsApp group, “A bit like Antony, they’ve spent money and gone round in circles to achieve absolutely nowt.” Unsurprising to learn that such a rarefied level of incompetence isn’t just confined to the boardroom, management and playing staff, I suppose.
United aren’t the only club focused on upsetting customers whilst claiming to be acting in their interests. Arsenal have recently banned 300+ fans and cancelled memberships for the crime of buying tickets via their own official exchange. 16 accounts were identified as suspicious as they were buying tickets in large batches before selling them on, not content with targeting these re-sellers they’ve also terminated the accounts of anyone who unwittingly bought from them. Newcastle fans too, have complained all season about being subjected to the same nonsense regarding collections that’ve become common practice at MUFC away fixtures in recent years.
One of the main issues the club needs to sort out is the difficulty in obtaining tickets for domestic aways. Since the ticket forwarding feature was introduced the number of applications per game has nearly trebled, with 14,000+ applying for the recent FA Cup tie at Wigan. Even if someone only has a vague intention of attending themselves, they can still apply and forward on to anyone who was unsuccessful in the ballot. As a ST holder in the standard pot your chance of success is only around 20% now, whereas when you applied back in the day (via the token sheet and SAE method) you got one more often than not.
The loyalty pot is rightly called out for hoovering up a sizeable proportion of each allocation but it comprises of less than 500 people now. Members of this group enjoy a success rate upwards of 80% and take a rough estimate of 15% of each allocation. With the current numbers applying, even if the loyalty pot was disbanded tomorrow the chances of being successful in the standard pot would only increase by around 3%. There’s an argument that collections should be mandatory for all games, which would no doubt put off many people applying, but this isn’t always practical for larger allocations. Most away grounds don’t have the facilities to accommodate 3,000 people queuing up to collect their ticket an hour before kick off.
So the question is, how can the club increase the chances of regular ST holders being successful in the ballot? Eradicating the loyalty pot would have little effect, extending the qualifying criteria from 5-10 years seems unduly harsh and increasing the number of mandatory collections might not be an option either. The main driver behind the increase in numbers applying has to be the ability to forward on your ticket via the United website.
Consider this scenario: let’s say you and a mate fancy going to Villa away, you need a pair of tickets but you know your chances of getting them are only 20%. What happens is you get 4 other mates to apply, logic being that this will increase your chances because if they are successful they can simply forward their ticket to you. If that is repeated hundreds of times that’s why we’re seeing the crazy numbers applying for each game now that wasn’t the case in previous years. Unlike the loyalty pot, as far as I’m aware there’s no limit to the amount of times someone successful in the standard pot can forward a ticket. In simple terms, the ticket forwarding facility encourages people to apply even if they have no intention of attending a particular game.
Most ticketing communications from United are accompanied by a reminder of the club’s unwavering determination to eradicate touting. However, for some mysterious reason they’re reluctant to engage with touts directly. To my mind, it’s pretty simple what needs to be done if they want to identify people habitually selling on for profit. When the usual suspects are offering tickets for sale on social media, simply make an account, pay the money and buy the ticket. Within a matter of minutes the ticket office could identify the original recipient and administer whatever punishment they choose.
I’m convinced the reason why the club chooses not to utilise such tactics is because their findings would throw up some uncomfortable truths. God forbid they confirm (as long suspected) that it’s tickets from sponsors, executives and the players’ pool that are routinely being sold to touts. Don’t expect this situation ever to be addressed, just bear it in mind next time you’re bemoaning the lack of a Forest ticket yet there’s pairs being offered for £300+ on social media. The source of these isn’t the loyalty pot, I can assure you.
Copyright Red News – March 2024
carlosartorial 