Cherries' away game point system seeks fairness

I imagine that many of you that go to away games regularly have noted that AFCB have mentioned that they are hoping to bring in a new points system for the away matches, perhaps even for next season. How this will work exactly has not been stated yet, but the aim is certainly to give loyal away fans some kind of reward for their continued support as games against big teams will be in strong demand. Whether the club can also do something online with being able to receive away tickets for cup games or high demand games would also be helpful if it could avoid the kind of queues that fans had to endure to get hold of tickets for the Charlton game at the end of last season.

The messag will soon be - build up your points to see more away games.

The main change that I can see is that priority service for season ticket holders is no longer going to be the key to getting hands on away tickets at some point in the future. How soon this may happen is not yet detailed. It looks like the data the club will use may go back a couple of years to see how often fans book for away games. I only hope that a point system would also mean less need for phone calls as well, but I imagine it would take some time to get a service going online with a new points system.

The pleasing thing is in the last few years we have seen the away support growing. It was fabulous to be among some 6000 fans at Aston Villa and 4000 at Reading and another 4500 at Charlton last season. The amount of fans going to the large stadiums at Premier League games is only as much as 3000 or 10 per cent of the capacity insmaller grounds (corrected from earlier). Cherry picking the best away games to see though may be more difficult in future if you have not been to many away games.

This is what the club has said so far when responding to social media questions about an away points system:

What's the plan with away tickets? Is it season ticket holder priority as normal or will there be a points system scheme?
@jakesomers1
The club is working towards a point system which recognises supporters’ attendance to replace season ticket holder priority for away games. More details will be announced in due course.

How long do you hold records for on purchase history? Will those that have been to games for the last 10 years get priority?
@Snowdout
While the database is 12 years old, more recent history will be used to determine criteria going forward.