8th November 2022
To All 588 Members :
Over the course of last season and this current season we have seen a step increase in new Members joining the Club . We have also seen an increase in the demand for match tickets against a gradual reduction of tickets which are made available to our Club.
The result being that many games have had to have a ballot for tickets. It has also been noted that long standing Club Members, some as long as 18 seasons are competing for tickets in balloted games with new Members. Nothing wrong with that when there are enough tickets however as a Club we have a duty to consider those Members who supported Arsenal through the hard times.
We have noted also that many new Members seem to join for a couple of seasons, attend a couple of games and then fail to renew.
For this reason after many weeks of discussion the Club are introducing a Tiered Membership.
It has also been noted that many Members place requests for multiple games, balloted or not. And when accepted these same Members often withdraw their requests leaving the Ticket Team with last minute work to redistribute the tickets. It also serves to put off Members who do really want to go to the games but decide not to place a request.
For this reason the Club are introducing substantial deposits for ticket requests for all games.
We have also agreed to close the Membership such that new applications for Membership will only take place over June and July each Summer.
With the World Cup break almost upon us the Executive and the Management Committee of Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club have taken this opportunity over the past few weeks to discuss, propose and agree in the majority the following changes to the Club.
ITEM 1 – Introduction of Membership Tiers
From today. 8th November 2022, Arsenal Scotland will adopt a new 3 tier membership system:
Tier 1: Members having a continuous 24+ months as a Member of the supporters club, are able to request tickets to ALL games subject to availability.
Tier 2: Members having a continuous 12-24 months membership of the supporters club, are able to request tickets to Cat B and Cat C games subject to availability, as well as being considered for Cat A games should there be more of a supply than demand for tickets.
Tier 3: Members with less than 12 months membership in the supporters club, are able to request tickets to Cat C games subject to availability, as well as being considered for Cat A and Cat B games should there be more of a supply than demand for tickets.
Please Note
Any Member who breaks their continuous membership, or misses any deadlines for renewals will then have to re-apply as a new Member and start again from Tier 3.
This means that renewals MUST be paid on time before 31st July each Summer.
As we are looking to implement this in the middle of the season, we do appreciate that this decision will not be accepted by some new Members and as such, we will offer any new Member who has joined for the 2022/23 season a full refund on their membership if they are not happy with this new system and who wish to resign their membership.
Match Categories
Cat A Games are defined as follows:
- All Premier League Home games
- All Premier League Away games
- All League Cup ties – Excluding Finals*
- All FA Cup ties – Excluding Finals*
- All European fixtures – Excluding Finals*
Cat B Games are defined as follows:
- Cat B Premier League Home games (using Arsenal’s classification on their website)
- Premier League Away games – Excluding certain games (This season for example – Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea)
- League Cup ties versus Cat B opposition – Excluding Finals
- FA Cup ties versus Cat B opposition – Excluding Finals
- European fixtures etc versus Cat B opposition – Excluding Finals
Cat C Games are defined as follows:
- Cat C Premier League Home games (using Arsenal’s classification on their website)
- Premier League Away games – Excluding certain games (This season for example – Newcastle, Leeds, Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Everton, Tottenham and Chelsea)
- League Cup ties versus Cat C level opposition – Excluding semi finals and Finals
- FA Cup ties versus Cat C level opposition – Excluding semi finals and Finals
- European fixtures etc versus Cat C level opposition – – Excluding semi finals and Finals
* Finals – we would most likely only get a tiny amount of tickets so the Management Committee would need to look at this item separately from the Membership levels.
ITEM 2 – Deposit payments required on all ticket requests
From today 8th November 2022 Arsenal Scotland will ask that All Members pay a substantial deposit on all ticket requests for every ticket request for every game:
[Note: the next 2 week window for ticket requests is for West Ham starting from 14th November 2022]
All Members requests for tickets will be met with requests for deposits as below and payment must be made within 3 days by screenshot confirmation. If not, the request is turned down.
As is normal there are no guarantees as to how many tickets are available.
If the tickets are subject to ballots then of course those members unsuccessful through ballots would get a full 100% refund of their deposit.
When ticket requests are successful the balance of payment must be made within 3 days by screenshot confirmation.
Cat A HOME games – £50
Cat B HOME games – £40
Cat C HOME games – £30
All Away Premier league games – £30 (in effect the 100% deposit)
FA Cup, League Cup, Euro games – subject to confirmation at the time but in principle at least £15 – £30.
ITEM 3 – Closing the Membership during the season
We have also agreed thereafter to close the Membership to new applicants each calendar year from 31st July to 1st June. In effect having a two month window in June and July for new applications to be approved and new Members added to the membership.
And there is more………………
In addition to the above changes Arsenal Scotland have updated and amended the Club Constitution and the Club Rules.
These are to be found here
Proposed Club Constitution 2022
The Club Constitution has been updated as attached and it will be published on the Arsenal Scotland Website and placed for formal approval by the membership at next year’s AGM.
Proposed Club Rules 2022
The Club Rules have been updated as attached and will shortly be published on the website.
Final Note
I know this is a lot to take in. Do believe me that a lot of hard work has gone into these decisions. We aim to offer fair membership to all Members in a professional manner and with full transparency.
Please direct all and any queries on the above to me.
COYG!
Victory Through Harmony.
Martin O’Donnell
Club Secretary
Arsenal Scotland Supporters Club
