The committee ask every member hoping to buy match tickets for games in London this season to read this article thoroughly – it is a bit lengthy but it is important.
Just a couple of seasons ago ESCLA were fortunate to be allocated match tickets for most members wishing to attend matches in London and the South. Last season members will have noticed that ESCLA had problems supplying tickets for these games, and not everyone was able to have a ticket.
The current policy operated by the Everton Box Office is to give Supporters’ Clubs an allocation based on their average away game ticket uptake. Early this season we had league games at Villa,West Brom, Swansea and Wigan, and our average dropped due to members not wishing to purchase tickets for those four games alone and since then there have been other games where lack of ESCLA interest has kept our average uptake unhealthy.
Our allocation for the game at Chelsea will based on our average ticket sales, and once again there will be disappointed members who will not be successful in obtaining a ticket through ESCLA. Priority in distribution is given to members who travel with ESCLA to most away games over 12 months or so, not on length of membership, thus members of many years standing did not get tickets for some London games last season because we allocated them to the members who had gone to the likes of Wigan, Bolton, Sunderland, Blackburn etc. If we can cater for those members then length of membership becomes the next criteria.
The procedure this season for games in London and the South continues as follows. When we open matches for bookings contact Pete in the usual manner and register your interest. You have not got a ticket at this stage. If we are successful in sourcing a ticket for you, Pete will contact you and tell you so, then send cheque and s.a.e to John Collings in the usual manner. OK – last season we introduced this policy and some members “registered” with ESCLA for a match ticket, then got one elsewhere – we do understand people like to cover all the angles, but if you register with ESCLA for a ticket then John Collings works tirelessly at trying to source one for you. PLEASE DO NOT apply to ESCLA unless you are going to take and pay for any ticket we may be able to get you.
Finally, for the less popular games we would ask members to try and always use ESCLA for ordering match tickets. This will help us raise our average and obtain tickets in greater numbers.
Fair system. Its the only way to do it. Fingers crossed for QPR, Fulham and Reading tickets then. COYB
Hi guys
I bought a family membership to ESCLA at the start of this season. I haven’t ordered any tickets through you guys yet as I have only done home games using my ForEverton membership, and am an ‘independant traveller’ (as I live in Suffolk).
I joined ESCLA for the sole purpose of hopefully getting away tickets to the London games and was hoping to do QPR, Fulham, Reading, and West Ham before the turn of the year (I already have train and hotel booked for QPR).
After reading this though I guess that based on my current criteria I will be rock bottom on the priority list? Is there any way I can improve my chances of getting tickets, such as committing myself now to the above future games?
Cheers for any help
Lee
John Collings who supplies the tickets in past season’s has received endless grief from members that has been directed in a personal way for not being always to supply the tickets through no fault of his own. Whatever system ESCLA come up with will always be unfair to someone. If people have the right criteria for matches then they should be successful depending on how many tickets Everton Football club request. Be patient and at all times please help the people that have put ESCLA on the map as they do this for the love of the club and their members.
Here here, Tickets to the most deserving.
It’s the only way
Those who book the coach are top of the list I take it!!!!!!!!!!!
I fully support any system ESCLA follows. I also believe any members giving John, Peter & co grief should be expelled. It’s hard enough organising five a side each week never mind ticket & travel for us lot. Thanks fellas.
Not planning to go to any London games this season. But have arranged a weekend in Manchester for the City game if that helps boost your away ticket purchase and free up a London ticket.
Can’t really disagree with any of the preceding comments about distribution of tickets
However the “law of unforseen consequences” will undoubtedly apply. The new “rules” will I fear severely dent ESCLA’s membership fairly quickly. I suspect many of us (like Lee above) see ESCLA as the only means to get tickets in the away end for matches in the region.
On a more immediate note, I am appalled that EFC have again only taken 1600+ tickets for the QPR game. OK it’s a Sunday 4:00 p.m. kick-off – but the club could have had the confidence to apply for the lower section (x 700) spaces.
If you go enough games you will get a ticket. Escla is a travel club set up to make getting the match easier, and more enjoyable. The tickets are a byproduct
That is right Paul, ESCLA is not a ticket agency, if it was JC, Bill and I would be demandind a salary ! One or two members in this post have commented that they only joined ESCLA to get tickets – we welcome anyone as a fellow Blue whatever the motivation in joining our club but those who have joined ESCLA solely as a ticket source have got the wrong idea of what we are all about. It has been good to read the majority of posts which have voiced support for John in particular, and we have had a lot of e-mail expressing appreciation of his efforts over the years, thanks for those.
@ Paul & P.Leach.
Hi guys. What you say above may be the case, but when I enquired at the start of this season about joining ESCLA I made it clear that I lived in Suffolk and therefore would not be travelling with the club, and that my primary reason for joining was to have more chance of securing tickets for the London away games. I was told that being a member of ESCLA would enhance my chances of this. I appreciate that regular travellers and those that go to more games should definately be top priority, but if that means that on most occasions for the London games there are not enough tickets left for people like myself and Richard, then it seems a bit pointeless me joining. I appreciate all the work you guys put in and of course there is only so many tickets to go round, but if I was going to be bottom of the list for London games it would probably have been best if I was informed of this before joining. Anyway, I have managed to secure a QPR ticket off a STH who isn’t travelling, and will be sitting in the neutral stand at Fulham, so hopefully I may get to meet some of you guys. All the best, Lee.
too right. sounds like false advertising to me. get the ombudsman in
see you at qpr
up the toffees
I was too late to order a QPR ticket, but you can order them via the Everton website direct now, EFC have taken the lower stand too !
@ Richard.
That’s exactly right mate. I have just bought 3 tickets for the ‘Neutral’ section for the trip to Craven Cottage direct from Fulham, as I have no way of guaranteeing getting tickets in the Away section from either EFC of ESCLA. I would much rather my money go to EFC / ESCLA, but if I had waited I would probably have ended up missing out all together.
On another note, this morning I have been trying to get hold of two tickets for the QPR game in the lower tier of the School Lane end (a lot of Blues were in there last season!) direct from QPR, as again it is highly unlikely that the Away section will go to general sale because of the lower allocation (what the hell are EFC thinking??!!). At the moment though, even though QPR’s General Sale started this morning, the enitre School Lane is still showing as ‘Unavailable’ on their online booking system, which could mean one of two things. Either A) QPR are still in negotiations with EFC about releasing a further allocation to them depending on uptake of the first allocation, or B), they just havent updated their website yet!!
The only reason I joined ESCLA was to get tickets for London games, but unfortuneatly it doesn’t look like that is going to happen, which is a shame.
I just bought two in the neutral section as I guess it would be unfair to ask for two tickets (One for my partner)shame, as I go every year with escla
Forgot to mention, I changed my membership to family so my partner could go to a game with escla members, but there’s always the pub before and after and there’ll be loads of Blues in the neutrals so we just gotta go with it.
I just hope this new policy doesn’t hurt the supporter clubs
Hi Peter
I noted the comments re London tickets on the ESCLA website and went to
Fulham to buy some tickets ( I live in Putney as you may know)
Everton have taken P6 and P7 (the official away end) plus P5 of the so
called Neutral bit. I bought 6 tickets in the remainder of the Neutral
bit P2 (restricted view but as we no longer play hoofball that shouldn’t
be a problem! )
I would think there’s about 25/30 remaining tickets in the rest of the
Neutral end P2-P4 which may help ESCLA members who don’t get any
allocated, mostly in singles and pairs.
There’s telephone and online ordering information on the Fulham website
Best wishes
Mike
as i work on saturdays half day it makes getting to games difficult ,london games are with in my reach as i drive to them escla was my option to get tickets so i a got a family ticket for myself and my three boys .As escla have taken my money and as good as told me i wont be able to get tickets for the london games any more i will not be member next year
We applied under the name of L Bishop and family – think you may have jumped the gun a bit and an apology would be nice. If not ask John Collings about us. Don’t write off supporters just because they can’t go every saturday and may not be able to travel.
The only L Bishop I know is Luca, with Glen on the family membership. Don’t know which of you is writing here – you did not apply to me for tickets, full stop, so that is an error in your statement. If it is you writing Luca, I am surprised because you have had plenty of tickets through ESCLA in the past, I suspect I am addressing Glen. How do you imagine “escla have taken my money and as good as told me i wont be able to get tickets for the london games any more i will not be member next year” (your grammar and inability to find the shift key for upper case is shocking by the way) – is not irksome to JC and myself ? So no apology will be forthcoming from me.
OK, Fulham & QPR we managed to get everyone who applied a ticket in the end,with help from a lot of our regulars who used their own sources freeing tickets for the more casual Blue and incredibly hard work by John Collings. I’ve no record of anyone called Glen, which appears to be your name, even applying. Add to that we are not a ticket agency, well, don’t think we’ll miss you next year.
ooooffff
Though I will not be travelling much, with escla this season, I have in the past and will again. Escla’s cut price group rail fare is good value for money. Virgin trains at full price standard class are anywhere from £72-£240 return. Though you can get special deals, these seem to be largely restricted to families and school holidays, ad should there come a time I have no money for overnight stop, I would not hesitate to make a day trip to the match with escla. The only reason I have not this season, is because I am not well travelled and certain places have more than football to see and do. Next Season I want to see Stoke and Newcastle as well as my trips to Everton.
To those who post negative comments! I have been a member for over ten years, and like others don’t always get to go but when I do I try to source my ticket through Escla, only once when I have applied have I not got a ticket (and this was due to the post!) for London games or anywhere really. Anyway the point of the story was many years ago before the mobile phones kicked in I remember being at a friend’s house and the phone rings asking can I speak to Ian, it was only JC who had tracked me down to let me know there was a ticket for the derby going did I want it? JC had made the effort in his own time to phone me somewhere else to ensure I got a ticket. I’m sure I’m not the only one to receive special service…think about it people these guys put the effort in for you and do their utmost to help and for that reason I will happily continue to purchase my membership even if I only get to one or two games per season.
Keep up the good work JC and PL and others to!
How the hell can anyone have a go at John or Peter, thanks to them two lads I had two of the best days days of my life when I travelled with escla to the away game at Villarreal.To organise two flights each way,coach travel from the airport to the superb hotel we all stayed at,coach travel from the hotel to the stadium and supply the match tickets must of took hours of there time,i would`nt know where to start.I will always be grateful for their efforts.
escla have always been fair to members that support escla, end of! members with negative feedback simply dont join escla! those genuine supporters support escla & are supported by escla in return. some very poor comments on here, dont mean to offend anyone but i think some of you are a joke!!!!
Some of the above comments are very dissapointing, the supporters that travel to games home and away on a regular basis deserve the priority at the same time it is important that as a supporters club we rally round together and continue to give the support when you can everyone has different circumstances however I have always found escla very fair with how ticketing has been arranged sometimes you get one sometimes unfortunately you don’t.
FOUR MORE YEARS FOUR MORE YEARS FOUR MORE YEARS
ITS A BAD CLIQUE. ONLY THEIR MATES GET TICKETS FOR THE IMPORTANT GAMES. ITS A WASTE OF MONEY IF YOU DONT WANT TO TRAVEL WITH THEM. AND GET ON TO THE AMOUNT OF RULES , REGULATIONS AND NAZI STYLE BULLTINS THEY HAVE. ITS A SUPPORTERS CLUB , NOT THE UNITED NATIONS. THIS COMMENT WILL NO DOUBT BE KILLED OFF BY THE MODDERATOR SO WONT EVEN SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.
Moderated and published – we have free speech here – many of you will know I was raised on Guernsey where we were occupied by the Nazis. This poster, who is not a member as far as I know, should make himself familiar with what a real Nazi bulletin would have been all about, the announcement of his deportation to a concentration camp for denouncing the ESCLA regime would have been typical……..
i cant believe with there being no trains for lfc game that escla are not running a coach as have done before. very dissapointed as are many other members i have spoken to, not happy as we are constantly asked to support escla which we try to do & when we need escla to organise a trip they dont seem to be interested even after many members expressing an interest. very poor in my opinion, ive always spoken up for escla in the past but have to this time say i feel let down!!!