June 2019 membership scheme meeting statement
Capital Canaries were represented at the supporters’ groups meeting on 27 June regarding the new membership scheme. Also present at Carrow Road were representatives of the Canaries Trust, Forces2Canaries, Barclay End Norwich, Along Come Norwich and Proud Canaries.
The club started by stating their position, which has been reported widely, but in summary:
They support a membership scheme and make no apology that as a self-funded club they have to commercialise
The club accepts that communication has been very poor on this issue
The club accept that there should have been fan consultation
They believe that the previous points system was flawed
The scheme was signed off by the Board
The club have committed to fan consultation going forward to look at what scheme will be in place for the 2020-21 Season. They are working towards announcing that scheme at the same time as season ticket renewals.
The Club have issued their own summary which can be read here.
There were discussions for just under two hours and it is fair to say that there are very different views amongst supporters. Most of the discussion was concerning away tickets. This is not to say that home membership is not part of the discussion going forward, just that there was a finite amount of time for discussion.
Capital Canaries represent people who generally do not live in Norwich and many of our members do not have home season tickets, so we have always felt that 1000 away points for home season ticket holders was unfair.
We feel that a change was needed but that the new system has gone too far the other way, and to take loyalty away to the extreme it has been was not needed – while accepting that those who did 10+ away games are still catered for, albeit at a cost.
We welcome the away season ticket being retained.
The cost remains an issue, especially for families, and we question if there is really a need to have both home and away memberships.
The club believes there is a need to allow new supporters to have a chance for away tickets and it not be a closed shop. Most people at the meeting understood that, but felt an arrangement where perhaps a percentage of away tickets were balloted and the rest sold via a loyalty scheme would then cater for more needs.
We raised the issue that our members who do not live in Norwich are disadvantaged in not having the option to queue at Carrow Road to be first in line for their sales window for popular games.
There is a belief that for many away games there will be no issue, particularly with games likely to be moved for TV. The average away attendance last season was 1,900 and last time we were in the Premier League we only sold out a handful of away games with an average attendance of just over 2,100. We agree with this to an extent, although early on expectations will be high. West Ham at the end of August will be a good indicator of what is likely to happen for the most popular games.
We have been asked by some members to clarify the away scheme as we understand it, so here goes:
1) Priority Members (Priority window)
The Priority group comprises:
Away Season Ticket holders from 2018-19 who pay the Premier Membership fee can renew their Away Season Tickets. The cost is £50 or £40 for those that had a Home Season Ticket/Membership in 2018-19, with no additional processing charge. No new away season tickets will be available. Tickets will be sent automatically. We believe there are 236 current Away Season Ticket holders.
AND
Those with a minimum of 10 away games in 2018-19 registered against their supporter number. Provided these supporters buy a Premier Membership, they will have a 24 hour Priority sales window before tickets go on sale to the rest of the Premier members. We believe there are approximately 500 people in the category.
2) Premier Away Membership (window 1)
Premier members need to purchase Premier Membership at £50. This group will be able to purchase tickets in the second 24 hour window after the Priority window.
We believe there are in excess of 5000 Premier Members in this group and therefore we recommend to Capital Canaries members that they are fully aware of the sale dates published by the club and ensure that they are online at 9am (or just before) any sale date to be in with the best chance of getting tickets. This will particularly be the case for the more popular games, which we expect to include most of the London games. The sale dates for all away matches in the 2019-20 season are available now on the club website.
3) Standard Away Membership (window 2)
Standard Away Members need to purchase Standard Membership at £35. This group will be able to purchase tickets in the third 24 hour window after the Priority window and Premier window. We would not expect popular games to get to this stage. It is confirmed that Standard Members who wish to upgrade to Premier Membership can pay the difference to do so. We do not know the number in this group but expect it to be relatively small.
4) Home Season Ticket Holders (window 3)
The next 24 hour window after memberships is reserved for Home Season Ticket holders not in either of the above categories.
5) General Sale (window 4)
Any tickets still available will go on general sale on day five.
Please note that to buy tickets as a group wanting to sit together, everyone in your group needs to qualify for the same window. If people are in different windows then you will need to wait to apply in the window of the lowest category.
We advise that groups get organised and add people to their friends and family in advance on the online system so that one person can apply for tickets together. If this is done now it will help avoid delays and potentially missing out on tickets when they go on sale.