| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. 18:18 - Dec 3 with 3939 views | homer_123 |
I'll be honest - I don't like it, it doesn't sit well with me.
I know others may think we have bigger issues to contend with (with recent performances) but thought I'd share.
What is it, to be a football fan in 2025?
There’s now a clear message to long-standing season ticket holders: if you don’t turn up, or you don’t re-sell your seat, you could lose your ticket. Even if you’ve held it for years. Even if you stuck with the club when the football was awful and the stands were half empty.
Now, on one level, I get it.
There’s a big waiting list. The club wants a full stadium. They want noise, atmosphere, energy and more people want a chance to experience that, I understand that. But, let's be honest, the club want matchday income too. Food, drink, merch, programmes, all of it and empty seats don’t spend money.
But...
When you start saying to fans, “Use it or lose it,” it feels less like you’re talking to people, and more like you’re managing stock. It’s the point where, as a supporter, we stop being a person in that seat and start being a data point in a CRM system. A line on a spreadsheet that needs to be 'optimised'. Hearing Ashton in that video - it's the first time I've felt like this - no longer the fan I was to the club a couple of years ago. It's irked me, more than I initially realised.
All football clubs talk a lot about fans as the 'lifeblood' of the club. They use that language in campaigns, in videos, in season ticket renewals. But these new rules around non-attendance send a different message, at least for me. They say:
We need you here, not just because we love your support,
but because every empty seat is lost revenue.
There’s a real tension here.
On the one hand, the club does need to be sustainable. Wages, transfers, stadium costs; they’ve all gone through the roof (factor in the long overdue investment as well). TV deals, sponsors and commercial partners are all part of the mix now. Clubs are not just football teams, they’re big businesses. To survive, they have to think about money.
I understand that football has been a 'business' for a while now but the whole reason the club has any value at all is because of the people who care about it. The ones who travel in the rain. The ones who miss family events for midweek fixtures. The ones who held their season ticket through years when it would have been easier to walk away.
So what happens when those people are treated first and foremost as revenue?
What happens when loyalty is measured not in years followed, but in how often your barcode gets scanned?
I’m not saying there’s an easy answer. I’m not saying the club is evil, or that nothing should change. We all knew that new and modern ownership and Premier League money would bring new rules and a sharper edge to the business side. I guess, this one small thing, for me, is that wedge - that first subtle sign of substantive change.
But I think it’s fair to name the dilemma:
- The club needs bums on seats
- The fans don’t want to feel like bums on a spreadsheet
Somewhere in there is a line. A point where sensible policy tips into something that feels cold and transactional.
My worry is that, if we’re not careful, we cross that line without really noticing. We look up one day and realise that fans are no longer seen as the heart of the club, but as inventory to be managed. Maybe I am naïve and we are already there but since Gamechanger came in, I had felt more connected to the club than ever, it got back that community feel, that it valued fans and the support generated. It felt like the club it once was both on and off the pitch.
So, can a club chase every pound, fill every seat, and still treat its supporters as more than numbers?
Because once fans stop feeling like the lifeblood, it won’t matter how good the spreadsheets look. |  |
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| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 23:10 - Dec 3 with 256 views | N2_Blue |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 23:07 - Dec 3 by Funge |
I mean, I'm repeating myself here - but what I do with my ticket, and how I choose to follow this stupid bloody team, is, bluntly, absolutely none of your business.
I am absolutely bugg3red if I am going to justify my whereabouts, be it once or frequently, to some bored 20-year old kid on minimum wage in the Constantine Rd portakabin.
Perhaps the club could start applying penalties for fans who turn up late, or leave early, or who don't sing loudly enough, or bring Fruit Pastilles in from outside. Call it dynamic support banding, or some such boll0cks.
Three strikes, and you have to give your home ticket vs Preston to Mark Ashton's wife's Pilates instructor.
I'm watching a game of football in IP1, on a Tuesday or Saturday, likely between 2 pretty bad teams, and, likely, will leave fairly dissatisfied, as, indeed, I have done for the most of the last 3 decades. Or I won't.
It is that simple. [Post edited 3 Dec 23:10]
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Whatever
Thought you were a pretty decent chap, but tone of your post is a bit ridiculous really
Its a pretty selfish outlook as well to be honest. |  |
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| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 23:21 - Dec 3 with 236 views | Funge |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 23:10 - Dec 3 by N2_Blue |
Whatever
Thought you were a pretty decent chap, but tone of your post is a bit ridiculous really
Its a pretty selfish outlook as well to be honest. |
Yeah, I'm an absolute b@stard, me.
Drawing emotive conclusions about random name on an Div 2 internet football forum arguably ridiculous also, but, 'whatever'.
Selfish? You've got no idea what I do with my ticket. Because (one more time), It's absolutely fck all to do with you. |  | | |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 23:27 - Dec 3 with 216 views | N2_Blue |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 23:21 - Dec 3 by Funge |
Yeah, I'm an absolute b@stard, me.
Drawing emotive conclusions about random name on an Div 2 internet football forum arguably ridiculous also, but, 'whatever'.
Selfish? You've got no idea what I do with my ticket. Because (one more time), It's absolutely fck all to do with you. |
Have I ever asked what you do with your ticket? Do i give a crap what you do with your ticket, no? Is it anything to do with me, no. I never said it did.
But anyone geting themselves in a tizzy about this from the club needs to apply a bit of common sense and rationale. | |
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| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 00:14 - Dec 4 with 179 views | Ryorry |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 20:59 - Dec 3 by Nthsuffolkblue |
Unless I misunderstand it, the sanction is for those who neither use their ticket nor sell it back to be used by someone else. If someone has a long-term condition preventing them from attending, why wouldn't they pass their ticket on to someone they know or sell it back to be used? |
By long-term I meant chronic or episodic illnesses or disabilities. Eg you might have Crohns disease & be fine on a Friday evening but ill & unable to go the next day.
Or (theoretical example) might be diagnosed a couple of months into the season with cancer & not know when your next treatment or feeling out of it days might be. (edit: sorry Southnorfolkblue, hadn't seen your p2 post when I first wrote this post. All the best to you 👍 ).
Not being a s/t holder, I wasn't aware of the resale option, so that's fair enough - IF there's sufficient time to offer to friends/rellies, or resell. [Post edited 4 Dec 0:33]
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| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 02:26 - Dec 4 with 131 views | Kropotkin123 |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 18:25 - Dec 3 by Ryorry |
Not a s/t holder & wasn't aware that was happening. Can see the owners' point of view, but would be appalled if it meant those with STs who might be experiencing long term health problems or family crises of some kind, had their STs taken off them. |
You can use the resale feature to avoid season tickets been taken away. I think it is reasonable. |  |
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| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 05:19 - Dec 4 with 101 views | Olcol |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 18:33 - Dec 3 by J2BLUE |
To me this is a real fans first initiative. If you're holding a seat waiting to see if we get back to the Prem before going again then you deserve to lose it. |
There is no guarantee that any of the 6000 new season ticket holders would turn up for every game either. |  | | |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 07:38 - Dec 4 with 66 views | southnorfolkblue |
| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 22:48 - Dec 3 by N2_Blue |
Probably because they didn't think people would freak out.
If you think the club are going to risk losing a ST holder who has followed the club through thick and thin, through the years of having less than 15k then i think you are reading too much into it.
the club needs its ST holders, and especially those that follow the club when tickets are hard to shift. This if anything is to encourage people to to use the two sytems the club has recently put in place, resale platform and the ST ticket forwarding facility.
They are very unlikely to ever act on it apart from servere cases such as someone mentioned here, such as a ST seat being empty every game over 2 years.
It has at least 3 advantages, more revenue for the club, more casual fans can go and most likely a better atmosphere generated.
Anyone who struggles with this probably thrives on the negativity that seems to surround the club on and off the pitch currently. |
You are probably right mate. I’m reading too much into it. My brain probably isnt in the right place to act rationally at the minute 😂😂 | |
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| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 07:50 - Dec 4 with 46 views | Bluemike31 |
Such a bloody mountain out of a molehill, I can't go, I give it to a relative or friend, that simple, job done, move on ffs. | | | |
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| Something has been bothering me, since the Club released the latest video. on 08:18 - Dec 4 with 13 views | chicoazul |
Wow the Ashton Bootlicker Platoon are out in force here. Defending their man and his coffee cup to the nth degree.
Fungers and Opie are absolutely right. It’s your ticket, do what you want. How I loathe modern football. Our short stay in the Prem has murdered so many minds. |  |
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