Sentinel: Supporter debate shows difficulty of Port Vale loyalty scheme

[News Feed]

The issue of a potential loyalty or reward scheme for fans came up at the latest Supporters Club meeting

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[Doha]

The current system is pretty crap if you don't live close enough to VP to be able to queue up for a paper ticket.

It also penalises and marginalises those who don't work a fixture friendly M-F 9-5 unless they buy a ST anyway, even though they'd probably only be able to go to 10 games. The other option, the 10 game deal, doesn't count as a ST when trying to get restricted away tickets.

The long and short of it is we have to get out of this tinpot league with tinpot away capacities.

 

[Karl Pilkington]

I would do something like the below as an example.

Crewe (A) - 1 point

Burton (A) - 1 point

Colchester (A) - 3 Points

Exeter (A) - 3 Points

ST holders get a set amount for renewing every season (maybe something like 20 points).

you are never going to please everyone but the games that people want to go the most essentially give the least points - usually because they are geographically closer

[jjvale_03]

2 hours ago, Karl Pilkington said:

I would do something like the below as an example.

Crewe (A) - 1 point

Burton (A) - 1 point

Colchester (A) - 3 Points

Exeter (A) - 3 Points

ST holders get a set amount for renewing every season (maybe something like 20 points).

you are never going to please everyone but the games that people want to go the most essentially give the least points - usually because they are geographically closer

That's pretty much how all other clubs do it. I noticed Brentford's fans who came to Vale got something like 5x the loyalty points they get for Arsenal away. Probably also explains why 100+ of them seemingly purchased tickets and never turned up - assuming you get the points for purchase regardless of attendance. There's an important point here though - should I be rewarded with more points for attending Hartlepool away than the guy who turns up to Hartlepool at home and therefore potentially leapfrog him in the queue for tickets to bigger matches?

A simple 1 point/game would be a start, with points rolling over on a 5 year cycle. It'd be a bit ropey in the first season because you'd still potentially have ST holders (23 automatic loyalty points) missing out on a low allocation away game early in the season. Only fair way around that would be to ballot those tickets. However, after a couple of seasons you'd get enough discrepancy between the loyalty points to be able to run a proper system. 

It's worth remembering that there'll be a decent level of churn within the ST holder base, and also within the fanbase itself. As much as it's easy to think that the 'loyal 4000' in 2022 are the same as in 2012, the reality is far different.