HirstIsGod

I think the maximum should be 740. 2 season tickets at 230 per season, all away games last season another 230 and 5 cup games giving 50 more.. I should have that but mine are showing as 760. Maybe they haven't finished updating them yet.

Great pub

Same has happened for my Swansea tickets

I got seated tickets from returns for Fleetwood. The terrace filled up when the game kicked off, it was far from half empty. There were a handful of unused seats near me but not enough to show the system was abused.

This is from my discussion with yeadonowl in the ticket section to people buying tickets just for points. How much is the current system being exploited to its detriment? Is it a few or has it now hit a large scale? You are spot on, some are hell bent on protecting their points total and they do get offered on here as soon as sold out, but how many out of a 2,000 ticket allocation do you think fall in to this category? Is it enough to make the system unworkable? Honestly I wouldn't know but I'd like to think it isn't. Tickets can sell out in the 3rd phase each time for away games, which looking at the points level would need someone to have attended a little over half of the games where additional points can be gained by season ticket holders, so do people really need to protect their points level to such an extent as the opinion seems to be? It is a lot of money to throw away. I suspect you would see the buying but not attending more in the home cup ties against the less fashionable opposition.

I have just been discussing this in the ticket section. Below is my situation over the last 2 seasons. I put this in another thread a year or so ago about my away ticket situation. We (a family of 4) started the 2022/23 season with 470 points, being 2 years season tickets and the Sunderland playoff game from 2021/22 season. Due to not going to away games for a couple of years we had "lost" all our priority points and were then well down the pecking order. My kids decided they wanted to start going to away games again for the 2022/23 season, I told them we would have no chance of going to them all but I'd try and get tickets for each game and we'd get to as many as we could. That season we got tickets to 13 league away games and missed out on 11 (Inc Peterborough away playoff). As a result of the 13 away games, all cup games (we even got tickets to the Fleetwood away replay when some were returned) and the home playoff against Peterborough, we started the 2023/24 season in a far healthier priority points position, putting us in the 3rd/4th phase early in the season. The first away game at Hull sold out before it got to our phase, but we were successful after I put us on the waiting list and the club got some returns. We then got tickets to all other games. We therefore started this season on the maximum points amount of 740. In just 2 seasons we have gone from quite a low phase bracket to maximum points and a guaranteed a ticket to all games if we want to. My situation shows that you can move up the brackets and it is most certainly not a closed shop. That said you do have to put the miles in and go to the less desirable cup and long distance mid week games to achieve this. If people just want to go to a couple of the more popular games then they will struggle. I imagine there will be quite a few complaints about the system when Luton and United tickets are sold out quickly.

You are spot on, some are hell bent on protecting their points total and they do get offered on here as soon as sold out, but how many out of a 2,000 ticket allocation do you think fall in to this category? Is it enough to make the system unworkable? Honestly I wouldn't know but I'd like to think it isn't. Tickets can sell out in the 3rd phase each time for away games, which looking at the points level would need someone to have attended a little over half of the games where additional points can be gained by season ticket holders, so do people really need to protect their points level to such an extent as the opinion seems to be? It is a lot of money to throw away. I suspect you would see the buying but not attending more in the home cup ties against the less fashionable opposition.

Buying for points is definitely the way our system gets exploited. Like already mentioned above the best way to combat this would be to only award points when the ticket is scanned but even then it only confirms the ticket was used not that it was used by the person that purchased it. Like with England you'd have to collect tickets at the ground with ID to try and make this work but even that doesn't stop the ticket being passed on if some members of a group don't attend, and it would be a huge inconvenience and administrative burden to the club and the club we are visiting. Re the empty seats that are visible, our fans (and those of other clubs) don't use their allocated seat at away matches, they congregate a few to a seat and in gangways with their mates which will make this look like people haven't attended. At Grimsby the back 2 rows were empty as you couldn't see all the pitch but the central gangway was full. Not an ideal situation but this is what happens. Also some of the empty seats don't actually get allocated to us and are used as extra segregation. I don't disagree with you though, some will be buying just to maintain points and not attending or selling on.

The system is "reset" every year in a kind of 2 year rolling system so this stops the gap getting bigger each year, and if you don't attend you drop down the brackets. The system doesn't work too badly, it is the buying for points that exploits it, but whatever system was in place there would always likely be some method of manipulation. I'd rather this than the lifetime points some clubs have where someone who stopped attending years ago still had more points that those that go today. I put this in another thread a year or so ago about my away ticket situation. We (a family of 4) started the 2022/23 season with 470 points, being 2 years season tickets and the Sunderland playoff game from 2021/22 season. Due to not going to away games for a couple of years we had "lost" all our priority points and were then well down the pecking order. My kids decided they wanted to start going to away games again for the 2022/23 season, I told them we would have no chance of going to them all but I'd try and get tickets for each game and we'd get to as many as we could. That season we got tickets to 13 league away games and missed out on 11 (Inc Peterborough away playoff). As a result of the 13 away games, all cup games (we even got tickets to the Fleetwood away replay when some were returned) and the home playoff against Peterborough, we started the 2023/24 season in a far healthier priority points position, putting us in the 3rd/4th phase early in the season. The first away game at Hull sold out before it got to our phase, but we were successful after I put us on the waiting list and the club got some returns. We then got tickets to all other games. We therefore started this season on the maximum points amount of 740. In just 2 seasons we have gone from quite a low phase bracket to maximum points and a guaranteed a ticket to all games if we want to. My situation shows that you can move up the brackets and it is most certainly not a closed shop. That said you do have to put the miles in and go to the less desirable cup and long distance mid week games to achieve this. If people just want to go to a couple of the more popular games then they will struggle. I imagine there will be quite a few complaints about the system when Luton and United tickets are sold out quickly.

Got my tickets. It was completely painless. In to their ticket office and had tickets in hand within a minute. Need to tell them you are there to collect so you don't get sent in the long queue with the Sunderland fans. Wasn't many envelopes though so maybe only for those who contacted club in advance.

I went to the ticket office yesterday afternoon and they put my tickets on a list to collect from Sunderland. The place they said we'd collect them from is boarded up so this might not be as smooth a process as suggested.

My tickets still haven't arrived. Hoping our post is just later than normal today or they aren't going to arrive in time

Mine haven't arrived yet. I was in the first sales phase. We're travelling up on Saturday so hope they arrive tomorrow.

There is a large car park next to the ground, I think was only a fiver last season.

Tommy Spurr