The trust had a meeting with the head of the ticket office:
http://www.thstofficial.com/thst-news/members-meeting-with-thfc-head-of-ticketing
It's a long one, but here are some highlights:
1.
Champions League at Wembley
The Club had been pleasantly surprised at the level of take up for the Champions League games at Wembley. In excess of 52,000 three game packages had been sold and both Group stage games so far had broken attendance records.
IM then addressed the reasoning for moving Champions League games to Wembley, stating categorically that those games could not have been played at White Hart Lane this season. The loss of 4,000 seats was part of the picture, but there were also issues with broadcasting and parking facilities, and the non-negotiable requirements of the broadcasting companies, UEFA partners and opposition clubs.
2.
White Hart Lane in 16/17 – ballot system
IM explained the reasons why he had made the decision to alter the way in which members tickets were sold. With 4,000 seats removed from a stadium that was already too small, ticketing arrangements for this season had to change. Neither his staff, nor fans, could be expected to put up with ‘19 internet meltdowns’. Balloting has not been universally popular and IM appreciated it didn’t suit everyone but it remained, in his opinion, the best option for this season.
The Hull City league match would be the first home game to reach general sale this season. The reasons for this being Hull’s decision to take a reduced away allocation (only 1,800 tickets) and the fact it’s a Wednesday night in mid-December. Every other league game has been over-subscribed by 2,000 – 2,500 members.
3.
Year away from Tottenham – Season Ticket amnesty?
IM confirmed that the current thinking of the Club’s board was not to offer a Season Ticket amnesty at Wembley for next season. Much time and money had gone into keeping Spurs in London, as campaigned for by the Supporters’ Trust. Milton Keynes would have been an entirely different scenario.
There were assurances that, should the Club’s current position on a blanket amnesty not move, THFC would listen to individuals with specific concerns about why getting to Wembley would be difficult/impossible and decisions would be made on a case by case basis.
4.
Season Away at Wembley
IM indicated that pricing for the full season at Wembley had not yet been agreed. It is not yet known what number of seats would be available across the season, which in turn delays any decision on the number of new Season Tickets that could be offered, too.
5.
New stadium
IM explained that the virtual reality suite (SPVRS) for the sale of 8,000 ‘premium’ (hospitality/corporate) seats is open and going well. Part of the Premium offering was ‘access’ to away tickets. At present, executive ST holders are entitled to 9% of the away tickets pot. This is likely to increase to 12-13% once the new stadium is opened.
IM wanted to reassure those present that general admission fans had not been forgotten in the new stadium and hoped to have more news in the spring. There would be designated ‘home’ and ‘family’ areas. Lessons had been learned from new venues around the world, and some closer to home.
As regards allocating Season Tickets in the new ground, current thinking was that existing Season Ticket holders and those at the top of the waiting list would be asked where they’d like to sit and who they’d like to sit with. Wembley showed some useful patterns in this respect.
Pricing and concession areas were under review.
IM confirmed the approximate figures for Season Tickets in the new stadium. There are currently c 21,000 ST holders, excluding the ‘Premium’ members. Rough figures indicated they were looking at increasing that to 40,000 in the new stadium, excluding the 8,000 ‘Premium’ seats.
6.
StubHub
A question was raised on the possible resale platform for Wembley after the current StubHub contract expires in May. IM confirmed that all options are being reviewed, including an in-house exchange.
IM re-emphasised that secondary ticketing (i.e. StubHub) only opens when a game has sold out. 20% of Season Ticket holders have sold tickets on StubHub in the last two seasons, with an average of 1500 tickets per game sold on the platform. IM felt the StubHub partnership represented a good commercial deal for THFC, while recognising that the whole dynamic of secondary ticketing will change at Wembley and in the new stadium.
7.
Category A match concessions
The issue of restricted concessionary areas at White Hart Lane was raised. The ballot was seeing those on concessionary memberships offered full price tickets outside of concessionary areas, which some felt was unfair. The Club had extended concessionary areas into the South stand along with the North for Category B and C games but would not be extending outside of the North stand for Category A games.
IM explained the two main reasons behind this decision. The first was that broadening the concessionary area would lead to a pricing disparity between match day concessionaires and Season Ticket holders, the latter of whom would have paid a full adult price for the same seats at the start of the season, even if they could have qualified for a concessionary rate in the North stand. The second was the potential loss of revenue.
9.
Europa League at Wembley?
Should Spurs fail to qualify for the knock out stages of the Champions League, would any potential Europa League matches be played at Wembley or White Hart Lane? IM commented that, as Spurs are still in the Champions League, no decisions have been reached regarding playing in the Europa League.
UEFA permit relocation after the group stages of either competition. However, that home venue then needs to stay right the way through to the semi-final stage.
10.
Allocation of away tickets and the price cap
KL shared some questions around the allocation of away tickets from One Hotspur Members who felt the price cap had made accessing away tickets an impossibility for them. Several had requested that away allocations be changed to either a ballot or be divided into percentages for ST holder and percentages for members to give more fans a chance to attend away matches.
IM said that, so far as was possible, Season Ticket holders would continue to get away ticket priority. Any ballot or split allocation would be difficult to manage operationally and would be unfair on Season Ticket holders who have always had priority for away game allocations. It was a benefit to those fans who parted with c £1000 each May for a Season Ticket. Any change might please some members but would displease just as many Season Ticket holders.
IM clarified that the loyalty point scheme for Season Ticket holders and One Hotspur members was not comparable, with members collecting points for every home game attended whereas Season Ticket holders were only allotted home league points once, upon renewing each summer.
MC explained that the Trust was often criticised for supposedly only caring about Season Ticket holders. He explained that the Trust undertook a lot of work on behalf of One Hotspur members and that members of the THST Board were Bronze members, but this was the system we had and the Trust believed it was the fairest right now.
The joint Club and Trust decision to suspend Platinum Memberships was also raised from the floor. Ian explained the reasoning. Following the price cap there was a flurry of people enquiring about away season tickets. In chat rooms and forums, people were talking about buying away season tickets and making their money back over the season by selling the ticket on for most away games but guaranteeing tickets for the bigger away games, which is not really in the spirit of things.
Ian wrapped up this section by explaining how he had to deal with a very emotive subject in a clinical manner in developing a system that was fairer to the majority of supporters.
11.
Manual adjustments on online accounts
One member said that the “manual adjustment” of loyalty points made it impossible to check game-by-game points allocations on One Hotspur accounts online. IM said this shouldn’t be the case and will check and come back to the Supporters’ Trust.
14.
Late changes to KO timings
A member raised the recent shift in date of the Burnley fixture next month and how much of a problem late changes to games are for fans. A trend of late moves in fixtures between Burnley and Spurs was also remarked on!
KL confirmed that, for this specific game, THFC had agreed to compensate fans who were in possession of a valid match ticket and had booked non-refundable travel or accommodation before the date change was announced. This was received with a round of applause.
Thoughts moved onto the last match of the season, with IM confirming if anything happened that displaced Manchester United as the final game, the last match would be a category A game. The Club had always planned for the last match to be a category A game regardless of opposition.