Getting tickets

[Gunner Rob]

I rarely comment on here during the summer as I like to have a break from football.

However this ballot system that has been introduced seems to be a bit of a shambles.
Is there really going to be a ballot for every match this season including League cup and Champions league group matches?

All the league games and champions league games for sure. Not for League Cup as it’s not part of the season ticket and as FA Cup is no longer part of the season ticket, it shouldn’t apply to that either (see below).

However, I don’t see what good this ballot is. I have been a member since 1992 and only once have I not got a ticket via my membership which was for the Villa game in 1999. First game I apply for this season, I am unsuccessful. Luckily, someone who now can’t make first two games has transferred their tickets to me, but I don’t know why I have paid £54 for a silver membership.


Cup Scheme

The 2023/24 season will consist of 22 games for General Admission season ticket holders, including 19 Premier League matches and 3 UEFA Champions League group stage games. As a season ticket holder, you have the opportunity to sign up to our new Cup Scheme, which means you will automatically purchase your own seat for all remaining European and FA Cup matches before they go on sale to other members to ensure you don’t miss out on the action. As in previous seasons, Carabao Cup home games are not included in your season ticket. They will not be available via the Cup Scheme, and you will be able to purchase these fixtures on a per match basis.

As a season ticket holder you will have the option to sign up for the Cup Scheme during an opt in window before the first home cup game of the 2023/24 season. Further details and dates will be communicated in due course. However, if you miss the initial Cup Scheme sign-up, you will still be able to purchase your seat in an exclusive window on a per match basis.

ok so on this basis there shouldn't be a ballot for the Champions League knock out games as they wont be part of the season ticket.
so this means a bizarre situation where it might actually be easier (as a red member) to get tickets for a Champions League knock out match than a group stage match.

I think i'm most annoyed about having a ballot for the group stage games really as in the past it has always been fairly easy to get a ticket for these matches. I have long accepted that league matches are much harder to get hold of and so dont object too much to a ballot for them.

I am struggling to see the point of red or silver memberships anymore though either - it is just a money making machine for the club.
It doesnt really mean much now.

[Gunner Rob]

having experienced the "queue" at Wimbledon tennis this summer I would quite like say 2000 tickets being made available on the day of a match - first come first served. Wonder how that would go

[arrgee]

Short of capping the number of silver members, the club cannot prevent those used to getting tickets most of the time being disappointed much more often if there are now more people competing for the same tickets.

If they are going down the ballot route for each game, what they should do, I suggest, is to recognise that people are getting different value from their silver membership based on how many times they are lucky in the ballot. They could then reflect this at renewal time. For example, if you got more than 60 % of the tickets you applied for you pay £70 to renew, if you got between 30 and 60% you pay £50, and if you got fewer than 30% - provided you applied for at least 10 matches - then you only have to pay £25 to renew.

Not perfect by any means (you'd need a very convaluted system to weight successful Category A applications etc) , but certainly fairer to those who have been unlucky in the ballot.

The number of silver members is capped, but it has been expanded in recent years due to lower ticket sales. Given a 30% success rate in applying for say 10,000 tickets and not all members applying, I would guesstimate there are now 50,000 silver members. The second half of last season was unusual as prior to that since moving to the new stadium it was always easy enough to get tickets for cat B/C games. If you didn’t get them on the initial sale, they would be on Ticket Exchange.

The problem with a 1 in 3 chance is that you could get lucky and do better than that or unlucky and do far worse. The chances of the 30% event happening if you have three chances to achieve it is 66%. So if you lose the first time (like me), you only have a 66% chance of getting a ticket in next three. However you pay £54 regardless.

If there is a ballot, ideally exclude those successful in the last ballot from the next ballot or prioritise those who were not successful last time. However this is impossible as there are many like me who make 10 applications a season and others who will apply for all games and some who apply less frequently.

Anyway, I have downgraded my silver to red and will rely on the kindness of others (namely gold members). They now have to utilise their seat for 17 of the 22 games, so with a couple of STHs whose attendance is erratic, particularly midweek, I should get my tickets that way.

[arrgee]

Silver was a complete waste of money for me last season, only managed one ticket Wolves which given the way the season panned out could have been an epic game.

All of this is linked to the club trying to clamp down on touting, which in 2023 despite the digitilisation of the ticketing process is still a big issue. I would like Arsenal to go into the reselling sites, and start purchasing tickets on a match by match basis. Then identifying where the tickets are coming from, and banning any members that are putting tickets up for sale on these sites.

I suspect they know where many of those tickets come from and it’s unlikely to be silver members. With ticket transfer, as a season ticket holder, you can now transfer a ticket to a "friend" without a membership. And the said "friend" can then sell/transfer the ticket. The season ticket holder has done nothing wrong. And there are lots of tickets that are not even associated with a member that are given away to sponsors and staff. The number of paper tickets I see in the lower tier is significant. Why would the club stop supplying them?

[arrgee]

having experienced the "queue" at Wimbledon tennis this summer I would quite like say 2000 tickets being made available on the day of a match - first come first served. Wonder how that would go

There would be a load of touts queuing to buy the tickets. That’s what used to happen in the 1980s. They would get school kids to queue and buy them once staff recognised them.

[Gunner Rob]

having experienced the "queue" at Wimbledon tennis this summer I would quite like say 2000 tickets being made available on the day of a match - first come first served. Wonder how that would go

There would be a load of touts queuing to buy the tickets. That’s what used to happen in the 1980s. They would get school kids to queue and buy them once staff recognised them.

actually there wouldnt - you queue up, get your ticket and straight in the ground.
no opportunity for touts to sell them on.

[TheBigBean]

Is anyone else a bit disgruntled about the move to digital tickets only? The options are now to use Google Pay, Apple Pay or queue up with photo ID before every game. I need to do the latter, but I can only imagine it will be chaos at the first game of the season.

[arrgee]

Duplicate

[arrgee]

Is anyone else a bit disgruntled about the move to digital tickets only? The options are now to use Google Pay, Apple Pay or queue up with photo ID before every game. I need to do the latter, but I can only imagine it will be chaos at the first game of the season.

I can guarantee chaos, but if you use ticket transfer they send you a pdf you can scan to get in. So if you are going with a friend send the tickets to each other and print them out.

I will print my tickets for first two games.
Must remember to thank my sister for dragging her husband on vacation and getting his tickets

[TheBigBean]

Thanks for this. Are you absolutely 100% certain a ticket transfer becomes a pdf? I know this used to happen, but my fear is that they will insist the recipient uses a digital ticket now.

If that works, then I can just transfer it to myself or anyone who can send me the pdf

Apparently it is all a crakdown on ticket touting, but their plan seems to be to give me a ticket 3 hours before kickoff that I can definitely sell instead of my season ticket card, that I can't sell.

Furthermore if I can just transfer it to anyone who gets a pdf, it feels like the only thing they are doing is hassling me.

I'm really annoyed about it. All the changes over the last 10 years (ticket exchange, ticket transfer etc.) have been great, but this is a real step backwards.

I appreciate I'm probably a bit weird not wanting to use Google pay, but there are quite a few people who don't have smart phones

[TheBigBean]

From the link below. You are right! Completely ridiculous.

Any tickets accepted via Ticket Transfer. will be sent to recipients via email.

https://www.arsenal.com/tickets/arsenal ... m-forest-0

[TheBigBean]

Apologies, I'm a new forum member and have only just read the full thread. I hadn't realised all the problems that red and silver members have been facing recently. Sounds like the club should definitely be cracking down on it, but I don't understand why it means I can't have a functioning season ticket card.

[Gunner Rob]

From the link below. You are right! Completely ridiculous.

Any tickets accepted via Ticket Transfer. will be sent to recipients via email.

https://www.arsenal.com/tickets/arsenal ... m-forest-0

am i missing something here but I thought that the idea was to crack down on touts?
surely if more people than before can get in the ground with printed emails then this plays into the hands of touts more than before?

in my opinion there should be NO paper tickets - if you cant get in on your membership card then forget it.

[TheBigBean]

From the link below. You are right! Completely ridiculous.

Any tickets accepted via Ticket Transfer. will be sent to recipients via email.

https://www.arsenal.com/tickets/arsenal ... m-forest-0

am i missing something here but I thought that the idea was to crack down on touts?
surely if more people than before can get in the ground with printed emails then this plays into the hands of touts more than before?

in my opinion there should be NO paper tickets - if you cant get in on your membership card then forget it.

They've also made ticket transfers free instead of costing £1, so on the face of it, it seems great for touts, and terrible for me.

The box office confirmed there was technically no reason I couldn't transfer my ticket to another of my accounts although it might attract attention at some point.

[arrgee]

From the link below. You are right! Completely ridiculous.

Any tickets accepted via Ticket Transfer. will be sent to recipients via email.

https://www.arsenal.com/tickets/arsenal ... m-forest-0

am i missing something here but I thought that the idea was to crack down on touts?
surely if more people than before can get in the ground with printed emails then this plays into the hands of touts more than before?

in my opinion there should be NO paper tickets - if you cant get in on your membership card then forget it.

Doesn’t look like a crackdown on touts to me. The reason for the ballot was that ticketmaster didn’t want to deal with 50,000 people trying to get tickets at the same time and crashing their servers. For the Brentford game, the sale was postponed to 2pm due to this. Arsenal website states "To ensure fairness and equal opportunity, tickets for home Premier League fixtures this season will be sold via a ballot system exclusively for Arsenal Members.". No mention of touts at all. As for fairness, it’s not fair that a silver member in the family enclosure is twice as likely as a silver member outside the family enclosure. Maybe I better register my nephew and drag him along.

You can ticket transfer to a non-member, so there has to be a paper ticket. Besides the cards no longer work.

https://www.arsenal.com/ticket-transfer-guide

Q. Are there any other ways that I can transfer my ticket?
A. No, Ticket Transfer is the only official and legal way for Gold members to transfer their seats. Digital passes can no longer be screenshot and sent onto friends and family.
Q. I am not a member, how will I receive my ticket?
A. As a non member you will be emailed a PDF ticket
Q. I am a member, will my digital pass be activated?
A. No, a PDF ticket will be generated and email to all recipients using this service


chance of success for each ballot across the games that have been balloted so far this season:


Nottingham Forest
Silver 28%
Family Enclosure 33%
Red 12%

Fulham
Silver 37%
Family Enclosure 62%
Red 12%

Manchester United
Silver 35%
Family Enclosure 64%