Season Ticket Sharing Scheme voted Brighton Villain of 2021-22
Uh-oh. Another 1500 word letter about clickbait could be incoming as Albion fans have voted the club’s controversial Season Ticket Sharing Scheme as Brighton Villain of the Season 2021-22.
For the first time, Seagulls season ticket holders were told that if they wanted to transfer their seat to friend or family when they were unable to attend a game at the Amex, then they would have to pay £20 for the privilege.
Not only that, but seats could only be transferred to MyAlbion+ Members. If your wife, husband, son, daughter, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, next door neighbour, old school friend or work colleague did not want to pay £25 to sign up to a Brighton & Hove Albion membership scheme – a football club they may not even support – then they could not have the ticket.
There were numerous reasons as to why this was a terrible idea. Some season ticket holders did not want to pay to pass on their ticket. Others could not find anyone willing to fork out to become a MyAlbion+ Member to accept a seat.
Stories abounded of people forking out the £20, then paying £25 for their partners to become members. Taking someone from your family to a home game suddenly became a £45 expense on top of the £650 being paid for a season ticket.
The result of all this was hoards of empty seats across the Amex and a lot of bad feeling amongst fans. Some supporters even said they would not renew their Brighton season ticket because of the sharing scheme.
If they missed five or six games a season in previous years, then it did not matter so much as they could give the ticket to a friend.
Missing five or six games in 2021-22 meant their seat going empty. With every match now going to general sale, it makes more financial sense to pick and choose fixtures rather than commit to all 19 if you will be unable to attend several and cannot pass your seat on.
The club had prioritised what they thought would be a quick buck over filling the stadium. The evidence that it had backfired was plain to say through the number of empty seats visible to the human eye.
Not that Paul Barber was accepting that, of course. A December article in the Brighton Independent pointed out that the season ticket sharing scheme had played a part in only 15,000 people turning up to the Wolves game and the subsequent dreadful atmosphere.
Barber responded by writing into the newspaper, dismissing all criticism as clickbait. That further antagonised season ticket holders by making it appear that the club were not willing to listen to fans on the issue.
It also provided the quite wonderful trend of Albion fans uploading photos to Twitter of empty seats at the Boxing Day Brentford game with the hashtag #Clickbait.
The sharing scheme remains in place for 2022-23, albeit slightly modified. Amongst the changes, Brighton supporters will now be able to share their ticket with any Tom, Dick or Harry for one game per season – which seems rather like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
Time will tell if the changes do make any difference, although it is interesting to note that MyAlbion+ Membership has increased to £34 for next season.
Might we be sat here in a year with the ticket sharing scheme as a back-to-back winner in the Brighton Villain of the Season category?
It will come as an almighty relieve that this year’s second place cannot finish runner up again next season. The yellow away kit is to be ditched after two campaigns in which it was worn in a grand total of zero Premier League victories.
The only success it delivered was not even a success in the real sense of the word. A strong Brighton side just about managed to draw 1-1 with West Brom Reserves in the FA Cup after 90 minutes, going onto win the tie in extra time.
No matter where the Albion went, if they wore yellow you knew it meant they would not win. Goodbye and good riddance to the worst away kit in Brighton history.
Third in Villain of the Season went to Dan Ashworth, who decided around the turn of the year that he wanted to resign as Brighton technical director.
The Saudi Sportswashers had offered (C)Ashworth a serious amount of blood money to take up a similar role at Newcastle United.
Tony Bloom initially refused to play ball unless the Saudi’s coughed up £5 million, meaning Ashworth had to spend six months tending to his garden.
A deal was finally reached at the end of May, allowing Ashworth to start work at St James’ Park. Piece of advice, Dan – don’t go accepting any invites to the Saudi embassy unless you fancy being dismembered into tiny pieces with a bone cutter.
WeAreBrighton.com Villain of the Season 2021-22 – The Results
- Season Ticket Sharing Scheme – 33.93%
- Yellow Away Kit – 29.27%
- Dan Ashworth – 14.56%
- Gareth Southgate – 14.11
- Peter Bankes – 7.20%
- Al Ahly SC – 0.90%
Previous Winners: Lee Mason (2021), Matteo Guendouzi (2020), Ricardo Gold (2019), Crystal Palace Fans (2018), Alex Pritchard (2017), Mike Dean (2016), David Burke (2015), Nigel Adkins (2014), El Hadj Diouf (2013), Glenn Murray (2012). Nigel Adkins (2011), Dean Hammond (2010)
