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On Sunday, Brace The Hammer reported on West Ham United finally allowing season ticket holders and club members access to their long anticipated program, “Club Cash”.
West Ham United are delighted to announce the launch of Club Cash – the scheme that allows Season Ticket Holders to spend money, earned when selling their seats on the Ticket Exchange.
Interesting choice of word; scheme.
With a new stadium, came a new ticketing service. After the 2015/16 season West Ham began to employ Ticketmaster.com for all of their ticketing needs. With that transition, they also implemented Ticket Trade, owned and operated by… you guessed it… Ticketmaster. According to the club, they experienced technical difficulties that prevented season ticket holders from access those funds.
Monday morning saw the expected announcement posted on West Ham United’s website as well as in an email blast to all WHUFC members. The club cash can be spent in numerous ways, including and limited to:
- Tickets for regular season matches
- Ticket upgrades to better seating or areas of London stadium
- Hospitality
- Season ticket renewals
That sounds all well and good until you start to think about what’s missing. Where are the away ticket purchasing options? How about options to purchase tickets to Cup matches? As a season ticket holder you don’t need to purchase regular season matches or upgrades. So what does that leave? Hospitality, which has long been lacking or, oh my…season ticket renewals.
In my previous article I speculated the timing of this tech fix was a bit coincidental with season ticket renewal options about to be dispersed. That sentiment is only reinforced given the club’s announcement yesterday. The timing is all too perfect.
So let’s say you have £100 in your club cash. You’re a season ticket holder who already has access to each home game. Hospitality doesn’t interest you as you attend Hammers Chat’s boat crawl every week. Upgrade? No thanks, you’ve been sitting in these seats your entire Hammer life.
In many ways, the Club Cash is very much still locked up. You might think you finally have access to those funds but take a step back. You paid for those season tickets, so why should anyone dictate how you spend that money?