BrahimHemdani

Wouldn't it be a good idea to know who is left in the competition BEFORE you publish this kind of statement. FYI there are only SPL clubs left: Rangers, Celtic, Hearts, St Johnstone, Inverness CT, Dundee Utd, St Mirren and Aberdeen; so any fixture home OR away has to be against an SPL club.

If we were to draw them, we would be severe underdogs, so a loss however painful would not be unexpected; but if we were to win as an SFL3 side..........

That is correct but it doesn't qualify as "trying to destroy us?" never mind" poisoned hatred and unrepentant vitriol".

I can't argue that it's a clear result although as you say it's a small sample and we don't know if all those voting are "away" fans, though it would seem unlikely that you would vote if you were not. As to whether or not 56 out of 1,000-2,000 is a valid sample, I'm not qualified to judge; but 2.5% to 5.0% might be and I'm told that once you get past a certain level, poll results (like baseball scores) tend to repeat. I'd say it's an indication; probably nothing more. Of course Rangers could do it properly if they chose to run a poll themselves rather than take the opinion of one unrepresentaive group, which both polls show represent at the very best a minority position.

This is just nonsense. What evidence is there to suggest that a "certain hierarchy of SPL member clubs. .......... attempted to destroy us when we had reached our lowest ebb. and to their bitter displeasure, the Rangers survived this trauma." or that "Our supporters have waited patiently for apt opportunity to respond to some of the poisoned hatred and unrepentant vitriol directed, both at them and the club, by starving SPL clubs of much-needed cash." etc They voted against our membership of the SPL but at the same time they tried to put us into SFL1; in what way is that trying to destroy us? I didn't read any "poisoned hatred and unrepentant vitriol" from the likes of Motherwell and Kilmarnock; I read well presented arguments for both sides of their dilemma. As has been pointed out, the gate money in these games is split, so a boycott hits Rangers as much as it hits the opposing club; and at the same time it deprives our team of much needed away support. I find it difficult to believe that the Assembly supports such a move.

Me grumpy, you've got me all wrong, BD; I'm a teddy bear.

Must know you then :cheers:

I have done some polls on that basis in the past, if you remember I did several one night. I recall someone saying I was "on a roll". I think the background was important this time and it was really what I wanted to get out but perhaps I fell between two stools. On the other hand it is possible that the low turnout simply means that only a small percentage of fans go to away games (which is certainly true this season). According to your figures, 4.5% of those who read the article voted in the poll and that's actually twice the percentage of fans who were at Forres compared with the last home game!

Given that I wrongly voted for "Be restricted in the first instance to those who have already bought an away ticket" when I meant (and had voted first time around for) "Be restricted in the first instance to those who have been unsuccessful in previous ballots" that would mean 9 votes (16%) for each of those options. Odd that no one voted for "Be restricted in the first instance to those who have already bought an away ticket" in the first ballot but it got 16% of the votes second time around and "Be a completely open ballot amongst all season ticket holders" got just over 20% first time and 2/3rds second time. However, I would accept that the second ballot has more validity.

Can't agree with you on that FS, past history must stand even if it is 2/3 years ago. In fact I have long argued that 2 years past plus current season isn't much of a history at all especially if there was only one game in one of the years. To me it should be at least 3 years past history plus current season; however we won't need to worry about that for another two years at least!

Better be; I've only missed one in the last 7 years including Malmo where we weren't supposed to be!

That's an interesting way of looking at at it, SB, although in terms of the limited poll results so far, no one is in favour of that system. Also you'll be fine so long as you CAN sell your ticket on, which is doubtful for places like Broadwood or Hampden for example and in any event may not be very convenient. AND it will work until the Club decide to do what they do for European games - only distribute the tickets at the location of the match

Which all goes to show that a better system is urgently required.

Many thanks, Zappa that would be very helpful, as the purpose is to inform the Ticket Office of fans views, so as many contribute an opinion or take part in the poll the better. I have taken out the (apparently) controversial figures and replaced with an alternative phrase, fixed some typos, addded a comment about QP/Hampden and otherwise brought it up to date. Feel free to publish in the main site, hopefully when you transfer the poll it will still have the votes already cast.

I mentioned it to make the point that the Assembly do not speak for anything but a small minority of season ticket holders. On the basis of what I would be the first to admit is an extremely small sample on here, their view that away tickets should only be sold to those who have already purchased away tickets, is not supported in the poll. The opposite view is supported. The information came from the Ticket Office but I wrote the article on the basis that the identity of the person would remain anonymous.

Approximately 50,000!

Happy to answer in a PM.

A few more votes would be helpful to validate the poll, thanks guys.

I have asked that a message be put on the system when tickets are sold out; so that fans are not hanging on the phone lines for no purpose. (Added to OP)

The reason that such a system is not operating this season is that unlike in the SPL where the Club knew or more or less knew the allocation from each club at the start of the season, Rangers are only finding out the allocation around a week before the matches and there simply aren't enough tickets to go round. However, the experience of the first half of the season will allow a new system in the second half and hopefully a computerised online system for next season.

Apparently Supporters Clubs as a whole still get 30% of the allocation and the number each club gets depends on the size of its membership. They are graded from A+ to somehting like N; those who run clubs will know the full picture. Astonishingly up at Forres there was at least one guy with a handful of tickets on the main street (only street) around 12.30pm. Didn't see you there BD!

Please vote on the poll here - http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/latest-news/81-rangers-fan-poll-sfl-away-ticket-distribution I had a meeting on Friday with a senior official in the Ticket Office to discuss the away ticket distribution. I would stress that I was there to discuss my own concerns, particularly as it wasn’t clear to me what was meant by “further discussion with fan groups” in the Forres email and in my opinion only balloting for Forres tickets amongst “season ticket holders who have previously purchased an away ticket this season” was unfair to those who had not had been unsuccessful in previous ballots e.g. Annan or on the telephone lines e.g. Peterhead. It is also worth noting in this respect that the vast majority of fans are not members of any affiliated supporters association; in fact the Assembly, with whom the Ticket Office have discussed these issues, only speaks for a small minority of season ticket holders. For those, if any, who do not know how the system worked in the past; for SPL games one had to apply at the beginning of the season and you were then allocated say 5 or 6 games on a supposedly random basis (although it was done in blocks). Most times you would get a ticket for places like Kilmarnock, Dundee Utd and Dunfermline and usually one Celtic per season but Aberdeen and Hearts, for example were difficult to come by. Going back a few years you were not allowed to reject any of these tickets or you would lose them all; but in recent seasons you were allowed to reject up to two and still remain in the scheme. If you were on the Continuous Credit Card Scheme (CCCS) you paid a £1 booking fee per ticket. Because of a dispute over charges some clubs such as Hearts and Hibs opted to sell the tickets direct to Rangers fans. This season, the allocations for the typically small SFL3 grounds have been much less than we have been used to in the SPL, which has posed the Ticket Office a major dilemma in trying to find a fair method of distribution of say 1,000 - 2,000 tickets when there are 10,000 people signed up for non-SFL home games. They started by using a call centre but in the case of Peterhead for example this meant that (as happened to me) you might be waiting in the queue, with no way of knowing if or when you would ever get through, for an hour or more at 10p per minute, only to find out when your call was eventually answered, that the tickets had been sold out in 20 minutes. A bit like voting for someone on one of these terrible talent shows after the result has already been decided. It did work better for Berwick apparently, when most everyone who wanted a ticket was able to buy one. I have asked that a message be put on the system when tickets are sold out; so that fans are not hanging on the phone lines for no purpose. However, with the even smaller allocation for Annan (400) the Ticket Office introduced a computerised random ballot, allowing two days for those who were successful to purchase the tickets and then re-balloting any tickets that were not purchased. However, this proved to be a nightmare as it took no less than 5 ballots to sell all the tickets. The original allocation for Forres was only 295 tickets but last Friday, Forres advised the Ticket Office that we would be getting 1,000. Hence the first ballot on Monday and the second ballot on Wednesday night, in which I am pleased to say I was successful! However, here again only getting a confirmed ticket by calling on Thursday greatly reduced the already limited travel options and increased the cost and with no room at the inn, means the 0645 from Croy, via Edinburgh and Aberdeen to Forres and not getting home again till after 11.00pm on Saturday night. They reverted to the call centre again for Stirling Albion and once again the tickets sold out quickly. Neither system has been a success for the Ticket Office or the fans resulting in frustration all round. It is unfortunate that as a result some staff have been subject to abuse when they are doing their best in difficult circumstances and clearly this is not acceptable. As a result the Ticket Office are looking at a new system of distribution which will combine elements of the old system whilst taking into account the limited availability this season (and next). Expect an announcement in early course. They hope to have a new fully computerised online system for next season. In the short term there will be no problem for Clyde as we are getting 5,000 tickets (or Queens Park at Hampden for that matter!) but East Stirling will pose the same issues as for the other small grounds. By the way Hampden is owned by Queens Park FC not the SFA (who along with the SPL and the SFL only rent office space there) so boycotting that match hurts QP not the football authorities. I have asked that in future email announcements to those who have been successful in ballots it is made clear that if you go along to Ibrox to purchase your ticket you do not have to pay the £1.80 booking fee which only applies to tickets purchased through the call centre. Since you will probably have to go along to be certain of getting your ticket in time, especially if it is a second or subsequent round ballot, then there is no point in phoning the call centre, as I learned to my cost! In any event I have made the point that a 12% fee (£1.80 on £15) is out of order. It seems that the call centre levy a flat charge per ticket and Rangers get an add-on, so I don’t expect that to change. Until the distribution system is changed, there is an issue about whether it is fairer to reserve tickets for those who have already purchased away tickets (as used to happen in the Travel Club through your history) or whether to ensure that those who have not been successful in obtaining tickets for previous games should get first shout (rather like happened with SPL tickets in previous seasons). It seems that the Assembly view, thus far adopted by the Club, is that the former is the preferred option; my personal opinion is the latter, because a random ballot amongst season ticket holders or a pre-selected ballot amongst those who have previously been able to purchase a ticket could be self perpetuating and might mean that some people never get a chance to buy an away ticket. There is an added complication because some people, for work other genuine reasons, do not purchase season tickets but nonetheless wish to go to away matches from time to time. I have posted a ballot to seek views on this aspect of the issue which I will pass back to the Ticket Office along with any other suggestions. Door to door, an 18 hour round trip with 3 train connections to Forres and the same again for Elgin at the end of November; if I get a ticket! I wonder if these will count for Travel History when we get back into Europe?! Please vote on the poll here - http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/latest-news/81-rangers-fan-poll-sfl-away-ticket-distribution

We wouldn't have rights to away games, which is the bulk of the TV deal for the rest of the clubs.

GA, I am in the fortunate (or unfortunate depending on how you see it) position of having discussed this with Neil Doncaster on a number of occasions and basically he would agree with you, although he will never say so in public, that the diddy teams will always be diddy teams no matter how much money the SPL gives them. However, Peter Houston would tell you that if he had a half a million pounds more a season he would be able to field a much more competitve team. Surely we can all agree that it would be better all round if the other clubs were more competitive. However, Rangers (and Celtic) will always retain a competitive advantage in Scotland becuase of their much bigger fan bases and should also be allowed to negotiate their own TV deals. 90% of fans want bigger leagues for precisely the reason you state as well as boredom and there is no reason why each team in the league should not get an even share of the sponsorship money because without the other teams there are no games to play. That said perhaps 50% or 66% might be evenly split with the balance being used as prize money on a sliding scale? .