I'm a STH from 2008 & I have my grievance too. I added an additional seat in Corona Cove to my existing 2 seats else where for 2013, with the sole intent to move up in the priority queue. Those were the rules as explained to me by my sales rep but it doesn't appear to be the case by my assigned time slot. Don, you are a lawyer, right?
<Rant> I have purposely avoided buying season tickets for precisely the reason I see happening here. People seem to be getting bent out of shape because of expectations about where they should be in the seat chosing pecking order. I had season tickets from ’96 to ’05 and that meant squat to this FO when I came knocking in 2008 so between the logo remake and the uniform change I thought ******** it, I’ll wait and see if these people can do anything that adds value beyond what was taken in 2005. Well they finally are making progress in this area, Kaval, though not a soccer guy, at least recognizes he can learn and is trying. I would have liked to have seen this FO higher a soccer guy, but instead they blew off the Wee Man and brought in Alioto. NOT Encouraging. I sure hope everyone here ends up happy with what they get, but I’m going to wait until the end of 2013 and see what’s left. I have a feeling the same general seats I had at Spartan will be available in the new stadium for the 2014 season, if not well, that’s my loss I guess. One thing I wanted to bring up, but is probably off the subject for this thread is an interview I heard with Lew Wolfe. I’m scratching my head trying to remember where it happened but it was in the last two or three days and he was saying that he got a call from Lieweekly telling him that he was moving a team out of San Jose and wanted to know if Lew wanted to start his own team… WTF?!? Is he saying that AEG was not even going to try and work with him to keep the team here?!? Oh hell. Water under the bridge I guess but as much as everyone seems to hate GoldenBalls, I sure wish he’d buy the Gals and MLS can wash its hands of AEG. Next on the list is getting the damn MLS cup named after someone who really cares about the league. </Rant>
Well, for the most part it seems like the system they have adopted is fair. The team barely had 4,000 sth'ers this year. Not sure what their turnover rate is, but anyone who has had tickets more than a couple years will most likely get to pick from at least 90% of the seats in the stadium, and for most people, even more. You have to figure that 200-300 current holders probably opted for club seats, and there are likely another 200-300 that will renew in the supporters section. Can't imagine all current holders not getting the seats they want, or the ones right next to those.
Their system isn't hugely unfair, but there is a lot of misinformation floating around, and based on what I have observed, even the reps may be responsible for some of that. Plus there are built-in inequities. You could have had the most expensive seats for 2008-2011, and if you switched to the cheapest seats this year, you'd drop to the bottom of the list. Because my family moved last year to more hospitable territory, the old stands, I had to switch this year's seats to the zombie zone on the west side in the middle of the season so that I could move up the list a few notches. I already have misgivings about the club seats, but at least I was able to move back to our old section at Buck Shaw for 2013. (I have rarely seen more passive fans than yesterday's section 116. They would not chant. Only a few of them even deigned to clap.) My other hope for the new stadium: that the FO will at least try to keep the STH together, or at least not sell adjacent tickets to opposing fans. No Earthquakes fan should have to suffer through a game -- as I did yesterday -- with a neighbor constantly moaning and sighing "LA...oooh...LA." I really was tempted to tell her that she should go sit with her own kind (before they got tossed).
But, to be clear, you are only at the bottom of 2008. All subsequent years will pick after you. Not sure how many STHer's are left from 2008, but, like I said, you should still have 90%+ of the seats still available to you.
I was low on the list for club seats but now am apparently near the top of the list for general seating. So whatever. My new seats are not as well-situated as my current ones because the suites have those prime midfield spots. And for all we know, those suites will be huge dead zones in the middle of the field, occupied by indiscriminate partiers who have no interest in the game or the team. There were some pretty grubby aspects to the process that bothered me. But, hey, it's only money, and once the new stadium is ready, we will all have forgotten our petty grievances. Right?
I think that it is bogus that the FO is basing priority within years on money spent rather than on date of purchase. Also, why don't STH holders from 1996 to 2005 get credit for those years? SSV worked hard to preserve the colors, records, etc. from the old incarnation to the present one. Why not season ticket holder tenure? Sincerely, STH (1996-2005, 2008-2013); always the cheapest seats.
That's one of those "grubby" aspects that Tiffanie alluded to. That would have been a great gesture on their part.
Ok, chose my 4 seats. Was hoping for a row 1 on the team bench side that wasn't one of the Midfield Club seats. Forget that! I guess those went pretty quick, as well as the row 2's. (they may have singles and two's, but, I needed 4) Ended up getting pretty much what I have at Buck Shaw.
Just bought 5 seats in 109 Row 6. This is almost exactly what I wanted as it seems like a great value at $640. The only problem I had was that there are 10 seats in this row. someone had already bought 3 seats and I wanted to buy 6 seats. They wouldn't sell me 6 seats even though they were available because the didn't want to leave the single seat. So I had a choice between dropping my seat count or moving back.
radiogal and I just claimed section 109, row 7, seats 7-8. That section has 10-seat rows, with seat 10 on the inside closest to section 108. We've been STHs every year since 1996.
Looks like we will be neighbors at 109. Ours will be Row 9. That row has 14 seats. It looks like the number of seat per row increases as the row number gets higher. According to the rep, Section 109 is selling pretty fast. It is pretty good price point and relatively close to the center line and the player on field entrance, and above the home team bench.
Looks like rows 8 and higher are 14 seat rows. This will be much better than Buck Shaw with its aisle-clogging 40 seat rows.
Yippee! Just reserved our new Stadium seats: Section 109, Row 9, seats #13 & #14 (on the aisle)! I did get the feeling that Section 109 was selling fast.
Section 109, row 11, seats 1-5 -- that's on the aisle closer to section 110. Looks like lots of Section D from Buck Shaw is moving to Section 109 in the new stadium. I asked about the aisle closer to section 108, and the answer was that I would have been in row 18 if I wanted to be on that aisle. This is to give everyone a picture of how the section is filling up.