October update from the CCS
A travel group meeting took place in the Captains Lounge this evening at the club.
Stoke tickets go on sale from Sunday and the qualifying criteria is as follows:
From Sunday October 27th until Wednesday October 30th those who attended 5 away games last season are eligible to purchase a ticket.
From Thursday October 28th until Saturday November 2nd those who have attended 2 away games this season will be eligible to purchase a ticket.
On Sunday November 3rd until midday of Monday November 4th the tickets are open to all season ticket holders and gold members.
On Monday November 4th, that afternoon the ticket office must inform Stoke of how many tickets they wish to purchase, the first 1,400 are on a sale or return basis and another 1,500 are available in blocks of 750 where we must purchase the full 750 whether they sell or not.
The decision was made at the meeting to sell the tickets in this way to judge response of demand as to whether or not the club need another 750 or 1,500 on top of the initial 1,400.
Stoke prices are adults £25, OAP £19, U17’s £15 and U11 £12.
For Crystal Palace it is not absolutely agreed but it looks very much likely that there will be a reciprocal ticket subsidy for the games involving our clubs.
When it gets rubber stamped the adult tickets will be under £20 to buy.
The criteria for purchasing a ticket is a pre-sale to those who attended 5 or more away games last season before being opened up to those who have attended 2 or more away games this season.
Regarding Liverpool away on December 21st, we have an allocation of 2,800 and the prices are £38-£42 for adults, OAP are £28-£31.50 and 16 and under are £5.
The criteria to qualify is again a pre sale to those who attended 5 or more away games last season and it will then drop down to a figure that has yet to be decided for those who have attended away games this season.
The reason for the variance in ticket prices for Liverpool is that 10% of the views are restricted.
1,772 supporters attended 5 or more away games last season.
60% – 65% of our away support use the coaches to travel to the games.
Out of the 1,300 fans that were eligible to purchase a ticket for Villa away because they attended 6 or more away games last season, 750 bought a ticket.
The other 1,600 of the 2,900 allocation received plus the 550 unsold from the above 1,300 were made available to those who attended 2 or more away games this season.
At close of business today there were just approximately 400 remaining tickets and the qualification will remain at 2 or more away games from this season for the next few days.
The club is looking at the issues they have had recently with telephone lines cutting off whilst people have been in the queue waiting to purchase tickets and hopefully they believe they have resolved the problem.
The club are also looking at a fast track option where fans can pay to be fast tracked straight to ticketmaster to purchase a ticket for a game.
‘ MAN UTD & ARSENAL HOME TICKETS ‘ 
Tickets for the Man Utd home game go on sale to Gold members on Monday Nov 4th.
Tickets for the Arsenal home game go on sale to Gold members on Monday Nov 11th.
On November 19th fans will see work starting at a pace on the expansion of the Ninian Stand with heavy machinery coming in on that day, there will be small bits of work taking place before that but the noticeable work starts on Nov 19th.
‘ PERSISTENT STANDING ‘
Persistent standing in The Ninian Stand was again brought up at the meeting and the head of operations, Wayne Nash, is looking to invite around 100 fans from that area to take part in a seminar about the issues facing the club and the situation can be debated by the club and a section of the fans who sit in that area.
It was asked if cards of those fans who are persistently standing should be turned off now but again Wayne Nash said not until there has been proper debate by those involved will he be instructing that course of action.
It was stated that there will come a point in time where cards will be turned off and people will eventually be refused entry but Wayne does not feel that is the necessary action at this present time but did admit that is something that will have to be looked into further down the line should fans not respect the no standing policy in that section.
The club hope that come Christmas time they will be using games attended from this season alone as the qualifying criteria for the away games after Christmas.