After the timing of the publication of my last blog spookily coincided with the press release from the Club regarding it’s move to “SeatGeek”, I must admit I was getting a bit worried that someone from our beloved Club was spying on me. I’m not sure why they would, seeing as my views seem to be on a completely different wavelength to the Great and the Good at Leeds United. Unless of course they want to know what I think, so they can do the exact opposite, just to P*ss me off?
I am mightily worried about the surveillance state that we seem to be moving towards, not just from the “Papers Please” brigade in Carrie’s government, but also the Marching On To Ticketless rhetoric which is spilling from the mouths of our current custodians.
The problem as I see it, is that what the fans want and what the governing authorities, be it Our Club, FIFA, UEFA, the FA, the PL, the EFL etc. want , are two completely different things. Just look at the failed (currently but it’s not going away anytime soon) European Super League. Whilst all the “Big” clubs in Europe thought the ESL was a brilliant idea, keeping it all in the family. What I mean by “it” is money / TV rights / advertising and sponsorship. Little did they realise that we, the British public, would be so against it.
I do not use the term “British public” lightly either. As it was a massive thing at the time. Even people with no interest in football whatsoever were getting involved in the debate. There was commentary, debate and opinion from Parliament, daytime telly, afternoon telly and even in the local hairdressers, let alone all the usual sports media and social media channels. Some of these people had never even watched a game on the telly, let alone been to a football game. But there they were, all identifying and sympathising with the Blossom Hill rose swigging demonstrators outside the Theatre of Wet Dreams.
It’s pretty amazing that this Elitist ESL could spark off such a massive furore, when realistically the Rise of The European Super Losers League would only impact harshly on actually a very small number of people. The suffering souls would be the matchgoing fans who would have fork out MORE money, time, effort, annual leave, holiday time with their families, watching their team churn out the same rubbish, all over Europe. The actual benefit, would be to those people who want to watch and bet on football all the time, which according to the True Gods of Football, is everybody. And of course the money men who rule our game would be loving it, because they would be raking in the spondoolies.
The principle of it though was the fact that it was the Middle Class Entitled Elite telling us what to watch and enjoy. That was the crux of it. It was a classic example of the Rich telling the Poor what they should do for the greater good. Surely all these European Giants of Football knew what was best for the fans? Surely the football fans would only fear to tread in the footsteps of the custodians of the best clubs in the world?
The only way to sum it up is that they are on a completely different wavelength.
Like many things going on at the moment, there is a huge disconnect between us and our masters. I could go all political but I’ll leave that to the professionals. I’ll concentrate on football.
For those of you who aren’t lucky enough to have a season ticket, I’ll let you know what is going on. We have all been sent an email telling us how to renew our precious piece of plastic. The Club have taken on a new ticketing stakeholder – SeatGeek. This company is currently being used by other PL clubs like Citeh, Livarpool and Spurs, and some US sports clubs, to supply their entry systems. We have to log on to the new ticketing site, but you can’t use your old password (pa$$word), you get a link sent to your email to reset it and then you get redirected to this new site which will enable you to buy your “ticket”.
Let’s take you back to the old days.
Now in Ancient Times, you could of course just pay on the gate to get in (like at Villa away in 2018). Or if you were fit and daring enough, you could just climb over the wall at Lowfields. You didn’t really need to buy a ticket before the game – just turn up at 2.45pm on a Saturday (Yes! A Saturday!), and you could pay the man at the turnstile. Then we got these lovely little books with paper tear off slips that you used to stand there with, after having had a few jars, struggling to read what number slip you needed to tear off before you got to the turnstile. Every year you got a different coloured wallet. They were ace. You got a numbered tear off ticket for each game, which mysteriously never followed 1, 2, 3. It was always a random number, to keep us on our toes I suspect. Then there were vouchers for extra games, like Cup games (remember them?) after the numbered ones and I think in the 2000s ones you got vouchers for 10% discount on tat from the Club shop.
Here are some pictures for posterity
Then they decided that they would go to “cards” in the early 2000s. For our “benefit” of course, no more tearing off a paper ticket, just a piece of credit card sized plastic, that would get you in if you flashed it at the turnstile. That didn’t go down well initially, but we got there eventually.
We wondered why there was the move to plastic. “Progress” said some. Others, slightly more cynical, said it was more the fact that they wouldn’t have to man each turnstile, therefore save a bit of money. Hmmm – now there’s an idea! Hold that thought – it might crop up again.
Those of us who travelled away in the 80s had to get these new fangled Red Away cards (see picture, modelled by Knaresborough Secretary Dave (Lego hair) Rowson.
I think these were brought in after the riotous assembly at the end of the season at Birmingham in 1985. This may have been the last time we were allowed to pay at an away turnstile, until Villa in 2018, of course. After we got promoted, for “Our safety” we were all told that we had to get “Leeds United Away Cards” in order to get an away ticket. These were free to everyone who had a season ticket, it was just the hassle of getting a passport sized photo every season really. This cost money,of course, if you didn’t have a season ticket, just a tenner, but it was still money. It did cause a bit of a kerfuffle at the League Cup Final (against Villa in 1996) as some of the West Stand season ticket holders, who never travelled away, didn’t realise you needed an away card to get an ticket for the cup final, so they got a bit upset. Oops.
These were – wait for it – photo ID cards essentially. Those who were involved in discussions around away tickets not so long ago suggested that these be brought in, as an extra layer of security to ensure away fans were who they purported to be. These people obviously never remembered that we used to have them (because they weren’t going then???) and have forgotten that the exorbitant cost and extra admin hassle, made photocards a financial and logistical nightmare, and they were swiftly dismissed. Plus, no one ever looked at them anyway, especially not at 2.55pm when everyone turned up to the turnstiles en masse because we had been kept back by the Rozzers.
These morphed into the guise of “Premier Cards” in the early 2000s. Considering we then got relegated and relegated again not long after, the demise of Premier Cards was a given and we just changed to having to show our season tickets. If they ever bothered asking for it, that is.
I am reminded that the only other memorable fixture that was cash on the gate was at Odsal in 1986. Where the Rozzers insisted that the “all ticket” rules were scrapped. This was on the basis that West Yorkshire Police reassured Bradford City (and Leeds United) that the “cash on the turnstile” option was a far better way of controlling the fans in the ground. September 20th for those who cannot remember. We went 2 nil down. There was a brief incident with a chip pan and the rest is history. Here is the link for those of you who weren’t there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ym4QJTVegw
Away tickets used to be, just ask Eric and he would sort. People used to turn up at his flat and he would dish them out. Then B*tes chucked his toys out of the pram and ruined it all. After his hissy fit, you had to fax your away ticket request form in. This is Ancient History, if you really want the lowdown, somewhere in the blog archives I have spelt it out with a picture of the old forms that we used to have to fill in. Read all about it there.
Of course as pre requesite, you had to show your photocard at away games to get in. All for “safety”, you understand. The ticket had to belong to the person trying to get in with it. They wanted to know who was getting in, as they didn’t want any of the old hooligan mob from the 80s and 90s getting their sticky paws on away tickets. Much of the old hard core fans were undesirables, and in the spirit of the Premier League, they wanted families and a new kind of “fan” going. They wanted to move football away from the old traditional working class roots and open it up to the more upwardly mobile, new breed of “sports fan”. The sort of football fan who wanted to go for the experience and excitement, rather than just to follow the team .
SkyTVisf**kings**t. Ruining football for matchgoing fans since 1992.
So we turn to todays’ conundrum. Ticketless entry.
I don’t want it.
Someone in the pub said to me on Sunday “What you’d rather we go back to the tear off stubs?” I said ” Yes, they were fantastic”. I don’t want to rely on technology all the time. Technology is too unreliable. Some things cannot be improved with technology. Some things just don’t need improving. There’s the old adage again, if it isn’t broke – don’t fix it.
Take the breaking news regarding the Post Office Scandal. Hundreds of postmasters and mistresses falsely accused of fraud and theft. Why? Because of a faulty system which was meant to “improve” the Post Office efficiency. Now this may be one extreme example of system failure, but it is not like it still isn’t happening. Look at the “Track and Trace” system that the Government tried to implement, and the NHS app, and how much it cost – £37 billion well spent. I don’t think.
It’s hardly a shining example of brilliant technological advancement, is it? It didn’t work properly and most people who downloaded it, ended up uninstalling it because it either didn’t work or worked too well, pinging everyone that happened to stroll past you. When the PL made it part of the Covid rules, how many people just got a paper copy instead as the signal at ER was too unreliable?
Whilst I am at it, how many people have got the Sky VIP app to work on their phone? I can’t get it to work on mine, so as a Sky VIP Platinum customer, I can’t get any of the benefits. Sky – believe in butter.
On my latest yellow sticker trip to Marks and Spencer ( 3pm on a Sunday is a good time to visit I find), I was reminded about the flaws of doing everything on a phone. As usual, I picked the worse checkout to put my bargains on. At the front of the queue was a lady holding what seemed to be a huge bar of Galaxy (300g one) demanding that the cashier fetch the manager because she could not pay with her phone. The poor cashier was getting very embarrassed, but maintained a dignified tone of apology, as this customer was refusing to believe that it was the phone that was at fault, not the till.
What could possible go wrong with ticketless entry at ER?
We could ask the Citeh fans, who at the start of the season, having had this foisted on them without any consultation whatsoever, suffered long queues and a host of problems at the Etihad. The signal at Citeh is better than it is at ER, so you couldn’t even blame the poor reception. Could there be a situation where there are massive queues at the turnstiles because the ticket entry system isn’t working properly? A bit of congestion in a supermarket might be a bit of an inconvenience, but 30,000 people outside a football ground? Might be a bit more than a tiny bit of a hassle.
But why dwell on these negatives? What are the benefits?
According to the Leeds United website, the feedback from fans is that this is what they want.
Hmmm.
Anyone care to think back to the last thing that Leeds United said the fans wanted?
Was it perhaps the unmitigated disaster that was the new Club crest?
So, have the Club listened to the same group of fans again, then? No one I spoke to is in favour of etickets. In fact most are vehemently against them. As they are against the removal of the Pavilion as a pre match drinking place and cashless in ER. Who are these people that the Club are talking to?
You would have thought by now that it has dawned on the Club that the people that they are engaging with might not be most representative of the common or garden matchgoing fan. The ones they are engaging with may be on a completely different wavelength to the season ticket holders and members (when they can get a ticket) who attend games. These may have been the same fans who agreed that it would be a great idea to limit the exit points from the NW corner and the Kop for the first game of the season. Because that turned out so well didn’t it? Everyone being funnelled towards the gates at Lowfields, only to find that there was only one gate open. It was like the scene from 300 when the Persian Army were descending on Leonidas. It was only lacking a cliff to fall over.
My question is why do we need to change?
What is wrong with having season ticket cards and paper tickets? There is no green argument, paper is fully recyclable. One plastic card is hardly going to make any difference to the environment given the incredible volume of plastic pollution that is commonly known as the lateral flow tests, which we were forced to do every time we went anywhere for two years. These horrible plastic strips and the associated plastic paraphanalia, as well as the single use masks, gloves and PPE that the Government spent millions on ( and wasted as they had to send the rejects back as they weren’t fit for purpose ) have generated more environmental pollution in two years than all the farm animals in the world have ever done.
Just let us keep our season ticket cards and let us have paper tickets if we want to. Let us choose.
Let the Smartphone Elite have the option to live their lives addicted to their devices, if that’s what they want. But the Digitally Excluded must be allowed to come and watch Leeds United too.
Or is it, in a similar vein to the introduction of plastic season ticket cards, more that the saving is linked to having to have less ticket office staff and less staff at the turnstiles?
But then the question is, when your phone / device doesn’t work, who do you go to? Do you end up ringing some helpline 1000 miles away, waiting in a queue, whilst being reassured that “your call is very important to us”, because you digital ticket isn’t registering? If the eticket comes centrally from SeatGeek, can the ticket office staff actually do anything if it doesn’t work? Will there be any matchday ticket office staff at all if all the tickets are electronic? Hmmm – there’s a thought. Where have I heard this before?
Matchgoing fans matter. Our views matter. The old gits that sit in the Kop and the NW corner should have as much voice as those in the South Stand. In fact, if those in the South Stand think that it is right to chuck coins and bottles etc. on the pitch, then maybe The Club shouldn’t be listening to them at all, because that is not what football is all about. Same as it isn’t about glorifying the excessive antics of a growing number of Leeds fans who just want to goad home fans and get drunk and drugged up at away games.
At the Livarpool game on Weds night, as a mark of respect and solidarity to our fellow football fans, the LUSC exec met with The Spirit of Shankly group and laid a wreath at the Memorial Plaque for the 97. This is what football is about.
Apparently social media was all about us losing badly and the usual doom and gloom mongers saying that The Club needed to have invested in the January transfer window and that there is no future in the Club. But there’s more to football than squandering £100 million on the next Jean Paul Augustin. Speak to a normal matchgoing fan and they would be content with not having a 1950s crumbling relic of a West Stand and somewhere to drink and meet up with their mates before the game. They’d be happy with cheaper and better food and drink and better facilities. We’d be happy if our players just didn’t get injured all the time and our games didn’t get moved at the drop of hat by the True Gods of Football.
We would be happy if we could just go to a football game and enjoy it, and come back home.
Our greatest respect to the families and friends of the 97.
Always Leeds Always Loyal
