loyalty pot | carlosartorial

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.

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There’s just no let up is there? I foolishly assumed we’d witnessed the season’s nadir at the Etihad and the team would amble towards the finish line at their consistently inconsistent best. Unfortunately not. You really do have to marvel at the audacity of the players and their collective response to widespread criticism. Instead of trying to salvage something… anything, it appears they’ve downed tools completely. Actually no, scrub that. It seems they’ve put the tools back in the shed, locked it and disappeared off on holiday a month early. Chance of top four and Champions League next season? No? Europa Conference it is then. Fair enough then, lads – see you in August.

Some of the performances recently have been utterly pathetic. I got in early at Everton and witnessed the warm up; seriously, you see a greater level of intensity on Sunday at your local park. I’m pretty immune to results at this stage, they stopped stinging a few years ago when half-arsed mediocrity became the norm. Everyone knows the script by now. As a fanbase we’ve become resigned to the team’s complacency and an almost routine lack of effort. Nobody takes any responsibility and half of them don’t even look bothered. So many of these players… it’s incredible how they’ve got away with it for so long and continue to do so. They’re absolutely shameless.

Given the utter slop being served up on the pitch, the club should be thankful that people are still bothering to turn up in huge numbers. Home games continue to sell out and any dissenting voices remain in the minority. There have been a few instances of players being jeered recently but the OT crowd, buoyed by a noisy singing section and never ending hordes of awestruck day trippers, remains overwhelming positive in spite of the miserable football. I’ve never known so many spares floating about for home games though. Just from my own perspective, plenty of folk seem content to give the game a miss these days as many regulars aren’t there every game like they used to be.

Away games remain the place where the hardcore congregate and day trippers tend to stand out like a sore thumb. The club could suffer successive relegations and these would still be sold out with the same faces there who have been attending games for decades. This situation isn’t unique to United, it’s how all football clubs function for the most part. Some people treat it like a hobby (like the family behind me recently thrilled to have seen “the GOAT” in the flesh) whereas to others it’s their calling in life. My own position on this is I now regard watching United as both a curse and something that still just about motivates me to leave the house on occasion.

Most other football clubs have a healthy respect for their hardcore support. I mean, this is only logical, isn’t it? Businesses tend to engage with their loyal customers, they cherish them and they embrace them. Football supporters demonstrate brand loyalty to extreme levels, regardless of their teams’ fluctuating form or performance level. United’s away loyalty pot is representative of this, a group that’s been around since 2004 when the club announced its existence – members had to have applied for every game in the first half of that season. Initially comprising of around 1,300 people, this group now numbers around 500 so everyone left in is pretty much guaranteed an away ticket these days.

With demand exceeding supply dramatically, access to away tickets is limited for the vast majority of people. This makes United a very attractive proposition for ticket touts. These aren’t the fellas in sheepskin coats and stonewashed jeans stood outside turnstiles back in the 80’s, instead it’s gone digital with faceless accounts offering tickets via DM on social media. Not quite sure who’s buying them as the prices being quoted via screenshots I’ve seen are truly laughable. £400 for Leeds, anyone? Quite rightly, the club has made some noises in recent months about wanting to investigate this practice. Perhaps unsurprisingly, their methods in going about this task appear to have an ulterior motive as well as proving wholly ineffective.

It should be a pretty simple process, really. If you want to identify the source of a ticket being offered at inflated prices, it would make sense to pose as a prospective buyer and purchase it. That way you have the ticket in hand meaning you have confirmation of both the re-seller’s identity and the person who supplied it in the first place. Unfortunately, this kind of simple logic appears to be beyond the ticket office. Instead of seeking out touts themselves, it’s being used as an opportunity to inconvenience long-term supporters with ID checks required at away grounds. More specifically, loyalty pot members appear to be the main focus of their investigation.

It’s probably very true that not every loyalty pot member attends every game themselves, I don’t think anyone could seriously claim otherwise. What I would argue though, is that the loyalty pot isn’t the source of any tickets being sold on for profit. United supporters are a close-knit community and the unwritten code of conduct dictates that tickets are passed on to fellow reds at face value. This is why you see the same faces week-in, week-out at away games. The people there aren’t paying over the odds, they are there because they are being sorted out by friends who they’ve known for years.

I suspect that the club’s failure to target individual touts is down to the fact that such enquiries might uncover some unpalatable truths. A sizeable number of tickets are passed on to players and sponsors every game, are we supposed to accept that there’s no chance whatsoever this isn’t the source of tickets ending up on the black market? From my point of view, anecdotally at least, I would strongly argue that this is indeed the case. There are obviously going to be exceptions, but I don’t know of any season ticket holder successful in a ballot whose first instinct is to sell on for profit. I could however, cite the countless times I’ve seen tickets passed around at face value – a practice that happens at every single game and has done forever.

Under the pretence of eradicating touts, what we’re really seeing is an attempt to break up United’s traditional hardcore by jeopardising their access to tickets. United’s away support remains far removed from the Disneyfied fan experience™ that’s on offer at Old Trafford. It must be intimidating for groups of sponsors clad in matching tracksuits when confronted by groups of feral pisscans blocking the aisles, singing loudly and oblivious to the concept of designated seat numbers. Despite claims to the contrary, that’s the real motivation behind these ticket collections. They want to make things as difficult as possible for the group of supporters who’ll turn up despite the quality of football on offer. As has been noted once or twice already this season, the club is rotten from top to bottom.

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