Royalty Points Review

[Winchester Royal]

I'd like to see those who have attended more away games get rewarded when away tickets are up for grabs. So maybe people who have attended the preceding three away games could get first dibs on the next away game, regardless of whether they're season ticket holders or not - then reverting to the points scheme. Letting all STHs have a week to buy before any non-STH's is absurd.

Having a 'points' system allows the club to decide what is worth more (Feyenoord pre-season friendly being worth 20 points, for example), and I agree with those who would prefer for each game to count as one point, regardless of the location.

It's a hard one to call because there are so many factors affecting what is perceived as being 'loyal', - the STHs obviously provide funds to the club, and being first in the queue is, to a certain extent, one of the key rewards of being a STH. On the other hand though, why should somebody who has a ST and wants to go to Brentford get first dibs over somebody who has been to a load of home games without a season ticket, and also up to your Derbys, Birminghams, Leeds' and Norwichs?

[P!ssed Off]

I believe the Brentford tickets sold out when the criteria was current STH, + about 4/5 years of ST points.
That was the minimum threshold. The vast majority of tickets went to current STHs with 6/7/8/9/10 years worth of ST points.

Whilst some of the very few fans who attend a high number of away matches but are not STHs might complain they've been overlooked for a load of people with brand new STs, who picked West London as the perfect occasion for their very first away match, that is simply not the case.

"But a person with his first ST, who might never have been to an away match before, was still ahead of me in the queue?"
So what? Neither person qualified for a ticket by the time it sold out. It makes little difference who theoretically would have got one first.
And did the new STH really have the advantage anyway? Surely the non-STH 'away match regular' really should have made a few contacts by now.

[weybridgewanderer]

# Idea 4 – allow a transfer / donation of some Royalty Points to a member with a lower number of points, so long as the transferor still has more points than the person who gains. This could happen once only per season and during the close season only. (For example Bart has 1800 points and Lisa has 1250 – Bart transfers 260 points so he has 1540 and Lisa has 1510 and now they are likely to be in the same bracket to buy tickets at the same time.)


IF points were "spent then this might be OK, but after Lisa has bought her ticket ca she then give the points back to Bart? or pass them on to Joe?

[Forbury Lion]

Instead of transferring points, maybe focus on getting them on the right cards to start with. A father buying tickets for his family should see the points added to the cards for the kids/wife and not all on his card.....although he might prefer to have all the points so that he can get himself a ticket to an away game.

[PieEater]

That's how it works now Forbes, you have to give the member card numbers for each ticket and they get the points individually.

[Maguire]

I've not read all the responses but most of this seems to be an over-complication of a simple enough concept IMHO.

Point transfers? No, no, no. This doesn't make any sense at all and is contrary to the whole intent of a loyalty scheme. It's also complicated to administer.

Royalty point inflation? Also over-engineered and complicated to administer.

More points for shit cup games? Sure, why not. The club should absolutely use these points as leverage in their business, like any other loyalty scheme. Isn't that why home games are worth more points than away games as it stands ie. they put more money in the company's coffers? (I might be wrong)

Overall I think one must remember that a team of people have to administer whatever crazy scheme you come up with on paper. The scheme should be as simple as possible and enable RFC to optimise their business. It makes broad sense that priority goes to a) ST holders who have b) put the most into the club over time. There will always be specific cases of perceived "unfairness" but that's life in a nutshell.

[Maguire]

# Idea 2 – add 2 points for every time your season ticket is actually used to go to a home league match

Not much comment on this idea – but what there was generally favourable. But see also response to #5

What's the thinking behind this? If I were Reading FC I'd care about selling the tickets and taking the revenue. I wouldn't be fussed if they use the ticket or not beyond the additional match day revenue I might be able to make from them through concessions etc.

Again, it's also over-engineering a simple transaction. Buy a ticket, get the points, done.

[Forbury Lion]

# Idea 2 – add 2 points for every time your season ticket is actually used to go to a home league match

Not much comment on this idea – but what there was generally favourable. But see also response to #5

What's the thinking behind this? If I were Reading FC I'd care about selling the tickets and taking the revenue. I wouldn't be fussed if they use the ticket or not beyond the additional match day revenue I might be able to make from them through concessions etc.

Again, it's also over-engineering a simple transaction. Buy a ticket, get the points, done.

If I was Reading FC I would want the customers who spend the most money to be the ones who get priority, So I would issue Royalty points for every £1 spend in the megastore, every hotdog purchased, every programme and every ticket..... better to sell a ticket to someone who will spend further money on their day out than some tight fisted old miser who brings his own packed lunch and doesn't wear colours/doesn't buy programmes.... I'd also value current/future big spenders over big spenders of yesteryear/lapsed customers, so I would want them off the books and not jumping to the front of the queue due to old points.

I might also try to make Royalty Points a much sought after commodity by tweaking the bandings and then trying to shift end of line stock/low grade match tickets by awarding them extra points - buy a ticket to this game and you can get enough points to move up a band.

However, these suggestions are not necessarily going to be perceived as fair from a fans point of view, which is where STAR is coming from.

I can't remember how many Royalty points get awarded per ticket, but if it's 10 per ticket the club can just make it 11 for next season, 12 the season after etc etc or something like that.

What would be interesting is to see how many fans are on what point totals - The bandings may need tweaking, obviously season ticket holders should be excluded from the bandings when it comes to home ticket sales as they already have them.

[Maguire]

However, these suggestions are not necessarily going to be perceived as fair from a fans point of view, which is where STAR is coming from

Gets to the heart of my point - it's not just a ranking system to quantify how "loyal" a fan is, it can be used as a business tool as well.

[Green]

Exactly, you don't get people moaning nectar points need to be re-jigged.

[PieEater]

Royalty point inflation? Also over-engineered and complicated to administer.

Rubbish, how can adding a Pie point to some common reference data once a season be over engineered and complicated to administer.

actually I may reconsider Pie points being renamed Green +1 points.

[Maguire]

Well they've managed to pfuck up everything else in the past no matter how simple - I can't see what good convoluted schemes would do anybody.

Inflation factors, points donations (but only within parameters x and y within time period z), points related to how far an away game is (?!) all have their place and that place is in the febrile imagination of bored internet dwellers.

I can't see much wrong with a) Season Ticket holders (which is me) getting first dibs on tickets and b) people who have made the greatest historical contribution to the club (which isn't me) getting first dibs out of group a).

[RG30]

*BUMP*

[STAR Liaison]

*BUMP*

OW! We're on the case.

STAR submitted suggestions to the club at he end of December and were informed this week they have been considered. We wait to find out more but they're all a bit busy with the SF at the moment and we don't expect to hear anything much before the end of the season.

[bobby1413]

*BUMP*

OW! We're on the case.

STAR submitted suggestions to the club at he end of December and were informed this week they have been considered. We wait to find out more but they're all a bit busy with the SF at the moment and we don't expect to hear anything much before the end of the season.

What exactly should or could be changed though?

[Jagermesiter1871]

I was just checking my member card points today and it appears numerous tickets I've bought haven't been credited to my account. Is there anything I can do?

[STAR Liaison]

*BUMP*

OW! We're on the case.

STAR submitted suggestions to the club at he end of December and were informed this week they have been considered. We wait to find out more but they're all a bit busy with the SF at the moment and we don't expect to hear anything much before the end of the season.

What exactly should or could be changed though?

I knew someone would ask. Based on the feedback from this thread AND directly received from our members we put forward 4 ideas for discussion / consideration:
- equalising the number of points gained for home and away matches
- finding a way of ensuring that current loyal away fans aren't disadvantaged when buying AWAY tickets
- seeing if you could reserve the seat next to you for a linked member who does not yet have enough points to qualify but is confidently expected to qualify a few days later
- PieTM points - inflating the value of Royalty Points over time

Now, if you don't mind, is not the time for us to re-open the whole discussion of this can of vipers. For the moment (ie next month) we are considering this ball not to be in our court.

[PieEater]

- PieTM points - inflating the value of Royalty Points over time
.

This will be my legacy

[LWJ]

Some actual good suggestions there Star. Personally happy with both the first two.

If they could offer advantage to those who have attended a high percentage of away games the same advantage as STH for big away games that would be a good start.


Though the club have forced me to get a ST next year, well consider getting one anyway

[RG30]

Scrapping the 10 Royalty points for joining STAR would be a good start.

Hope you put forward my proposal STAR - not sure how joining the Trust can equate to the equivalent of buying tickets to two away matches.