Once again the severely flawed Jack Army membership scheme did nothing more than irritate Swans fans as they scrambled for Arsenal away tickets this morning.
Fans across social networking and message boards describe the system as “a shambles” “disgraceful” and “shit”. At the present moment this seems to describe the scheme perfectly!
Even those who managed to get tickets are unhappy with the way the club is running the scheme, and rightly so. It's embarrassing for a Premier League club to have to settle for Conference levels of organisation. There was ample time in the pre-season to iron out the wrinkles, so what's going wrong and leading to the backlash from loyal fans?
I was initially dubious as I signed up back in July - however the vague rules and benefits were not enough to put me off if it meant an edge when obtaining highly-sought after tickets.
My “making sense of the scheme” blog that I knocked up in July is here, but even to this day I'm still not 100% sure if it's accurate. I'm not sure anyone is.
Where is the information that states, in black and white (and orange), whether season-ticket holders have priority over those without a season-ticket but with membership to the Jack Army scheme? When do the priority points kick in and how many do you get? When are they awarded? If one person has 15 points but doesn't have a season-ticket does he have priority over the season-ticket holder with 13 points? Confused? Welcome to the club - 20,000 and growing.
These aren't hypothetical questions by the way. I may have missed a vital page or six on the official site, but I would actually like to know the answers!
A further slap in the face is the fact that so many fans have handed either £10 or £25 over for, essentially, nothing. I think I've somehow lost the initial email containing my membership number (which makes me wonder whether they actually sent an email out?). This leaves me without login details. For £25 it might have been nice to see a membership card, similar to the season-ticket card, to welcome you into the club. A certificate even. Just some evidence that you are involved.
Ultimately we are left with a club that, like it handled the season-tickets, Wembley tickets and various other events in the past few months, let itself down with poor organising.
I think it's time to either abolish the system and refund each member's money or sort it out properly – full list of who gets priority in what order, what the procedure is for buying tickets and what benefits we will actually receive for our money!
The media's focus should be on the attractive football Swansea produce, not the ugly organisation.
I'll end with some comments that I've lifted from Twitter and Facebook, from a range of Swansea supporters.
“Total shambles! Fixtures not there (online) to start, then showing members inactive!”
“I think having no physical proof of membership is wrong. My Girlfriend signed to a similar scheme with Cardiff Blues and has a card”
“They need a good kick in, due to the fact that b*****ds who don't even support the Swans have got tickets!”
“They had better get a real internet company in and sort the system out as its only gonna get worse”
“Its a disgrace, the way they are treating the fans, absolute disgrace”
Great article about the Jack Army membership. It needs a re vamp after just 2 games into the season & a dedicated phone line!
ReplyDeletegreat article, spot on
ReplyDeleteGreat article. What worries me is how will they cope when the loyalty points start kicking in? Scary!
ReplyDeleteI'm a Reading fan and was on your podcast recently. Anyway, our scheme seems to work pretty well. Member cards are free and every person buying tickets can get one. They accumulate points on a game by game basis. Season ticket holders cards are the same as member cards, only they have Season ticket written on the front, so as to differentiate.
ReplyDeleteST holders will get a certain amount for the season + for any extra games the go to (away, cup etc), which in theory gives the longest serving ST holders
Priority and them scales down, meaning plastic fans and day trippers don't get to rush in and buy seats. It's worked pretty well so far, allowing me to easily get my Wembley tickets way in advance of the general
Sales. I also managed to get my man city tickets for our cup game last year, a game that sold out completely, with no trouble whaatsoever.
Why not look to other clubs, like us, who seem to have solved the problem of fan loyalty with relative ease?
To be honest they should've looked at other club systems before they began charging people £25 - it shouldn't be that complicated a system, but they've made it so.
ReplyDeleteI hope someone from the club reads your comment and says "ah... THAT's how we should've done it!"
Thanks for the comment, hope to have you on the podcast again later in the year!
I paid £26.50 for mine and it's a load of crud I know people getting tickets that haven't heard of the swans before wembley if I'm honest it's a joke and I expected more of hue Jenkins this was a get money quick scheme and it's worked. I love the swans and everything about them but I don't love the scheme. Love the article great rant great times
ReplyDelete@chezlegend
Great comments, thanks - such a shame 99% of Swans fans are suffering with it being in place.
ReplyDeleteWHAT A RIP OFF !!! THEY TAKE YOUR MONEY EVEN NOW WITHOUT ANY CHANCE OF GETTING A TICKET... ISNT THIS SOMEHOW AGAINST THE LAW ? I THINK ITS CALLED FRAUD!!! I HAVE ACTUALLY WRITTEN TO THE CHAIRMAN ABOUT THIS AND GOT A BOG STANDARD REPLY ABOUT ACCUMILATING POINTS, CAN ANYONE ANSWER ME HOW YOU GET POINTS WHEN YOU CANT GET A TICKET? I HAVE BEEN ON LINE AS SOON AS THEY GO ON SALE ONLY TO WASTE AN HOUR TO BE INFORMED TICKETS HAVE SOLD OUT . JACK ARMY MEMBERSHIP IS A TOTAL RIP OFF
ReplyDelete