Featured Image: Chris Kursikowski on Unsplash
The Arsenal Advisory Board (AAB) held its first meeting of the 2023-24 season recently, and discussed topics surrounding the developments made to the Premier League club’s ticketing system and processes over the last three years.
At the beginning of the season, Arsenal moved to a ballot system to allocate tickets to members after talks with the Fans Forum and the Ticketing Working Group. Moving to this system has allowed Red and Silver members to register in their own time ahead of a clear deadline, making it fairer.
A ballot also helps the club to address the issue of illegal ticket touting and bot activity, as the system identifies suspicious activity tickets are allocated. The club revealed that so far this season, it has managed to identify and cancel more than 21,000 memberships attempting to obtain unauthorised tickets.
Arsenal also revealed the average number of entrants and the success rate for each ballot for home matches at Emirates Stadium (pictured).
Silver ballot: 1,800 tickets where average number of entrants is 5,600 (32% success rate). Silver and Junior Gunner (Family Enclosure): 1,600 tickets where the average number of entrants is 2,900 (55% success rate).
Red ballot: 2,900 tickets, average number of entrants is 27,500 (11% success rate).
Red & Junior Gunner (Family Enclosure): 300 tickets, average number of entrants is 2,000 (15% success rate).
Additionally, 1,100 tickets are offered to supporters’ clubs and 580 tickets are sold on a match-by-match basis to disabled supporters. Tickets for the family enclosure, supporters’ clubs and disabled supporters also only go to Silver, Red and Junior Gunner members.
The average number of tickets purchased through the Ticket Exchange by members is 4,400 per match, and the average number of tickets transferred to members of Ticket Transfer is 4,900 per match, making up the 17,580 tickets that go to members.
The Board noted that some fans had experienced challenges to accessing tickets via Ticket Exchange, which it attributed largely to unprecedented demand versus supply. The club will work with partner Ticketmaster on allowing some priority access for members to tickets on the platform for each fixture, if they are unsuccessful in the ballot for that game. This will also add an additional layer of protection against bots.
It is hoped this can be implemented in early 2024.
By the end of the season, the club is aiming to offer supporters the option of choosing a price point when entering the ballot.
“We’d like to thank the Arsenal Advisory Board for their input and counsel in their representation of Arsenal supporters on the important matter of ticketing,” said chief executive, Vinai Venkatesham.
“Demand for tickets is at its highest level since our move to Emirates Stadium in 2006. There are simply not enough tickets available to match demand, which unfortunately leads to a large number of disappointed supporters who miss out.”
He added: “We are investing heavily in our action against ticket touts as part of our overall objective to maximise the number of tickets that get into the hands of our supporters. We are also committed to ensuring these tickets are allocated between our supporters in the fairest way possible.”
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