ID and Brighton away tickets: A sledgehammer to crack a nut

Have you got everything for your day out watching the Albion on the road? Phone, wallet, box of San Miguel, ID papers should officials from Brighton want to make you collect your away tickets at the stadium or carry out a check on who you are.

Brentford will be the first time that the club implement their new away ticketing policy. Some supporters will have to go to Checkpoint Charlie Oatway set up by the Albion outside the visitors’ turnstiles to collect their match ticket in person.

The club have also said random spot checks will take place, whereby fans will be asked to show ID that matches the name written in felt tip pen on their ticket. That should be good fun for everyone involved.

Supporters who are discovered to have passed on their tickets in the face of these checks will be hit with a 10-game ban, be unable to purchase any away tickets during that period and have 50 loyalty points deducted. Thank your lucky stars you are not being sentenced to 12 years hard labour in the gulag.

Brighton channelling their inner North Korea with such draconian measures has predictably not gone down well with travelling fans. The club knew this would be the case, so why have they introduced such a deeply unpopular scheme?

The answer to that is because the Albion believe some supporters are cheating the loyalty system. Fans are awarded points for buying tickets; the more games you attend, the more points you collect, the better chance you have of getting a seat at in-demand matches.

Certain supporters now stand accused of buying tickets for every away game whether they intend to go or not. They collect the loyalty points, meaning that they stay in the top bracket for those plum games where tickets are harder to come by.

Supporters lower down the points brackets therefore find it harder to break into the top levels. The harvesting of points in this way creates a closed-shop at the top, rendering the loyalty scheme a little ineffective in terms of rewarding actual match-going fans.

Games like Brentford are where such loyalty point controversies come to the fore. The away allocation at the Gtech Community Stadium is tiny.

A Friday night in London for a winnable fixture after the start that Brighton have made to the season always meant that away tickets would be like gold dust.

There could be fans at Brentford who have not attended an away game themselves this season but have gained the required loyalty points through harvesting.

They have a seat at the Gtech over somebody who has been to every match so far but remains lower down the points system.

There is also the possibility that those eligible to buy a ticket might have done so with the sole intention of allowing a friend to attend.

Again, that potentially denies an Albion fan who is a regular on the road from missing out in place of a one-game-a-season day tripper.

Finally, fan behaviour has been stated as another reason for the checks. On occasions, those being arrested at an away game had not bought a ticket themselves. They had no right to be at the game to cause problems.

Brighton say this has damaged their reputation through a range of abusive, threatening and anti-social behaviours. There were 24 football-related arrests of Albion fans in the 2021-22 season.

Despite all the controversy over ID checks and Brighton away tickets, the club are clearly trying to maintain the integrity of the loyalty points system and keep away fans who cause trouble. Tin hat on here, but there is nothing wrong with that.

Their intentions are right. The question is whether they are going about it the best way, using measures that most supporters seem to think are over-the-top.

And how much of this intentional harvesting they are trying to prevent actually goes on? Is it enough to warrant ID checks, ticket collections and the bad feeling it is creating?

Coming out the boozer remembering you need to still collect your ticket #BHAFC pic.twitter.com/fJzDWdsfZl

— Jack (@JackBHA03) September 29, 2022

A rather brilliant turn of phrase appearing online to describe the measures is comparing them using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. An over-the-top reaction to what most match-going Albion aways fans seem to consider a relatively minor problem.

There are genuine reasons why Brighton supporters might pass on an away ticket. Illness. Family problems. A change of shifts at work. Too hungover. Travel issues.

The first and last of those reasons are particularly pertinent. A positive Covid-19 test and a friend can no longer have your ticket, unless you want to risk a 10 game ban.

Rail strikes or train cancellations meaning you cannot get to an away game cause the same problems. The RMT Union announced a strike on Avanti Trains for the same day Brighton visit Manchester City after many Brighton supporters would have bought their away tickets.

Should that cause supporters to miss the trip to the Etihad Stadium, they are stuck with a ticket nobody can now use – unless the club is willing to offer a refund to every fan no longer able to attend.

They are already on record as saying this will be difficult. Not only are they making attending away matches harder, but they appear to have no solution or willingness to help those impacted the most when they cannot make a game.

A seat now goes empty, a supporter is out of pocket in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and the team has one less fan cheering them on.

If an unexpected turn of events or disruption befalls 100, 200 or 300 Albion supporters in the lead up to an away game, suddenly you could be looking at 10 percent or more of seats vacant.

It is exactly the same impact that the controversial season ticket sharing scheme has had on attendances at the Amex over the past 14 months. Is it still Clickbait to point this out?

When ID checks and ticket collections were first mooted, some Brighton fans believed they would be reserved for the Brentford game and other matches were demand outstrips supply.

That would have made sense and been seen as a compromise solution, rather than inconveniencing fans at every away game. The sale of tickets for Brentford did not make it outside the first bracket of loyalty points.

Matches as in-demand as Brentford are few and far between. Fulham was a reduced away capacity this season but only because of the building work taking place at Craven Cottage.

Crystal Palace will sell out quickly but that game has featured names on tickets and ID checks since the Championship playoff semi final in 2013. Being treated like a citizen of an oppressive state is part and parcel of the Selhurst Park experience.

Most other Brighton away games however go a long way down the loyalty points ladder. Some do not even sell out. Manchester City is on general sale, meaning that anyone who wants to go, can go.

With tickets for that game at the Etihad Stadium being sent out with names written om them – imagine being the member of staff given that particular job – it seems like the policy will remain in place even for City away.

Paul Barber said in response to criticism of the ID checks that once digital ticketing comes in for away fans, it will make life much easier and secure.

The Albion will then be able to manage who gets sent a ticket direct to their phone in the same way they now have greater control over who comes into the Amex.

Until then though, it looks like Brighton fans will have to get used to matchday collections and carrying documents to away games to prove who they are.

The club see it as a necessary inconvenience to supporters. The majority of Albion fans seem to view it as another move sucking the fun out of watching football.

See you at an away day soon with a driving licence, utility bill, bank statement and a note from the doctor stating blood group – all for the honour of watching Brighton & Hove Albion.

A sledgehammer to crack a nut, indeed.