Would say it’s more of a drive to get memberships sold but don’t like the we’re being restricted though with the way to pass on tickets, few occasions like tomorrow where you can’t sell them give them a ways to mates etc..
I think that is one factor, but ultimately the digitalisation of season tickets has been quite generous. We went from having a plastic card where you physically had to meet people or post it for others to use (despite being against the T&Cs) to being able to forward a ticket digitally to anybody in the world instantly, by creating them a free Supporter ID. That has then changed to be to paid members only, but still with cup tickets people have been able to casually forward on tickets to anybody, as they are one-off QR codes. Ditto for Wembley tickets.
As a result, we basically had the turnover of season tickets drop to near zero after they become digitalised and now supposedly have a waiting list of a decade, when you could pretty much always get one for the next season pre-digitalisation. Even if you can’t go to matches, why would you give up your season ticket now, when they can be passed on with little to no restriction? Season tickets have been a tout’s dream for several years and I hate to think how many are stuck in the wrong hands now.
Even after these changes, I think they will need to eventually limit the number of tickets a season ticket holder can forward or sell back in a season. Season tickets are in the hands of people who have no intention of regularly attending, but either hold them to profit from them or to guarantee them access to the few matches they want to attend. I think most people would agree with the principles that season tickets should be held by regular attendees, not just people who keep renewing them even if they no longer use them for their primary purpose, which is personally attending matches.
My only hope for next season is they open up returns for more cup matches. I’m gonna be stuck with some cup tickets when we cannot get a babysitter and have a tiny pool of members I can forward them to, now I just send the individual cup wallet links to non-members. The system is generally a dream for league matches, Sheffield United aside. Every other league match has gone near instantly through that system (which is why I rarely have to post in this thread)!