Why watching Brighton in the Premier League isn’t a “closed shop”

“Closed shop” recently overtook “sign a striker” as the most used phrase by Brighton and Hove Albion supporters on social media following the sale of away tickets for games at Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

The current loyalty points system, by and large, rewards the most loyal Albion fans. That means that Steve, who has had season tickets in all seven seasons at the Amex and traipsed to Rotherham, Barnsley and Blackburn in the Championship gets priority for buying tickets to see the Albion at Old Trafford over Dave, who gave up going when we were a bit shit under Sami but did go to Fulham last year as it was an hour by train and we were good again.

A fair way of doing things? We think so. Nobody in their right mind could argue that a bloke who has come along for the ride in the last couple of seasons after we stopped being rubbish is just as entitled to a ticket to one of the big games as someone who has given the club a constant source of revenue through a season ticket – money that, lest we forget, has gone some way to paying for our Premier League squad – and puts the time and effort in to follow the team around the country.

The “closed shop” argument stems from the fact that it is apparently impossible for those with low points totals to accumulate more and thus put themselves into the position to get to the big games as all the tickets are snapped up by those higher up the food chain. This overlooks one very important point – that the only games which have gone in the top three points brackets are Arsenal, West Ham, Manchester United, Spurs and Chelsea. In essence, the most desirable ones.

Take Huddersfield for example. The game there next month ended up going on sale to any supporter with a season ticket. That is a about as far from a closed shop as you can get. In fact, it’s more like a shop with an open door policy that you could openly loot 15 loyalty points from. It’s funny how a lot of those complaining about not getting a ticket for Spurs or Chelsea have an excuse as to why they aren’t going to Huddersfield and will probably be busy when we are away at Burnley as well.

If you don’t have a season ticket but are on the waiting list for one that allegedly numbers in the thousands, you can get some points as there are still home tickets for sale for Stoke City, Burnley, Watford and – remarkably – Crystal Palace.

Watching the Albion in the Premier League can hardly be considered a closed shop when we haven’t even sold out our first ever Premier League meeting with our arch rivals, when we are eighth in the table and they are bottom.

The only way it is a closed shop is if you haven’t been to any away games in the last few seasons and only want to see the Albion in the glamour matches – which is exactly what the loyalty points system is designed to prevent in favour of those who have.

So rather than moaning about how it isn’t fair you aren’t going to Old Trafford, Wembley or Stamford Bridge, get a ticket for Turf Moor, St James’ Park or one of the other less exciting games we have coming up in the second half of the season. You’ll get the points, you can see the Albion in the Premier League and, in the case of Burnley, pay under £3 a pint and have a doner kebab pizza.

Closed shop? Far from it.