Luck of the draw: the away ticket ballot explained
The away ticket ballot can feel like a sham, but it’s not. I entered a dozen or so away ballots last season and didn’t win a single one. I had been luckier in previous years and thought I’d win at least once a season. But no.
However, as WHUST’s ticketing rep, I have watched the ballot process live to verify that it is entirely random. Here’s how it works:
The number of ballot entries depends on the match and how many points were required to secure tickets prior to the ballot. West Ham’s system then shows the number entered into the ballot and the away seats yet to be allocated.
Once the club clicks “go” the computer starts to randomly pick entries and allocate those fans seats in the away end. Those with family and friends may have entered for two or more tickets together so the computer will also need to find that number of seats next to each other before moving on the to the next pick. This is all done in an instant. The computer shows the seats filling up until all are allocated.
However, the club then automatically attempts to take the payment from the card the supporter has provided when entering the ballot. Several fail at this point – perhaps the person did not have enough cash in their account, or the credit card was suspended, or the bank’s system was down – the club doesn’t get told why. The result is that some of the seats change back to being unallocated.
The clubs then runs the ballot process a second time. It may need to repeat this three or more times to fill all the allocated seats with people whose payment methods work.
The club then showed us the results for the season. The systems throws up anomalies. One fan had entered for every game and never got an away ticket, while another fan had entered six times and secured a seat for five of those matches. But any genuinely random process would produce such results.
The club also showed the fans watching that it had to option to change the parameters. It could, for example, exclude from the ballot those who had won away tickets in the previous ballot. None of us watching felt that was fair. A truly random process must mean that your chance of winning is the same regardless of whether or not you had won before.
The club agreed to the fan request to publish a report for each away match on how many seats went to each category and how many entered the ballot and it has already started doing this.
So as someone who has won in the ballot before but didn’t win once last season – and hasn’t won so far this season – I can confirm the system is fair, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
Now we are in the Championship away allocations are even tougher. It’s worth bearing in mind how many seats have already been allocated before the rest of us get a look-in.
Club London will have 150 (5%). The players get 50 (down from 60 in the PL) for their WAGs, family and friends – this is standard in the Championship. There are also 20 seats reserved for special guests or last-minute changes.
Bondholders have the right to give away tickets to friends. From this season the club wants them to fill out a ticket transfer form for each match. The bondholders asked if they could do one form for the entire season as some give away their away seats for every match. The club refused and asked that they only take away tickets for personal use while there are such low numbers available. But they don’t have to and many are not.
The numbers the bondholders take varies with more for the big London games than for the far-flung evening matches.
There are then 539 away season ticket holders left. A total of 16 didn’t rejoin this season, of which three were terminated for lack of attendance. The club is not allowing any new fans to join the away season ticket scheme so this number will slowly dwindle.
It’s then done on points. So far this season fans would have needed 41 points once and more than 30 points for five matches to get an away ticket. Only two games have needed fewer than 15 points.
When West Ham is allocated 2,000 or more away tickets, there is a ballot of 10% of the away ticket allocation.