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Loyalty Points Survey
Background
Chelsea FC’s current Loyalty Point scheme was introduced in 2005. This followed a rise in ticket prices
across the board and the Club’s decision to end pricing differentiation for Premier League fixtures. This
resulted in difficulty selling out home games against less ‘popular’ sides and so the Loyalty Scheme was
introduced to solve both this problem and the one of distributing hard to come by tickets as success on
the field increased. Initially, Loyalty Points were only available for home games, but the scheme has been
expanded over the years to include both domestic and European away matches, varying points awarded
to reflect difficulty /expense in attending these fixtures after input from supporters.
Survey results summary
What is loyalty?
Opinion is diverse! Several believe number of years supporting Chelsea, others that it is travelling long
distances to attend home games. However, most are agreed that for the purpose of a Loyalty Point
Scheme whose purpose is to provide access to tickets, the key indicator is physical attendance at games.
The indicator most favoured by respondents as a means of differentiating loyalty is distance travelled to
away games (44.5%), followed by the time of kick off (20.27%). However, several respondents believe
that all fixtures are equal.
The majority favour Loyalty Point accumulation on a long term basis, rather than starting afresh each
season. The most common remark was that this serves to ‘even things out’ whereas with the current
system, a supporter could be disadvantaged because of temporary circumstances.
Loyalty or Marketing?
A clear majority of respondents believe that the Loyalty Points Scheme should reward loyalty, however
there is widespread belief that the Club uses the scheme to sell hard to shift tickets. This is borne out by
a small majority (53.6%) stating that loyalty points awarded for European Group Stage games should not
be varied according to UEFA coefficient of the opposition.
Almost all agree that additional loyalty points should be awarded for early renewal of True Blue
membership and Season Tickets. There are suggestions that additional points should be awarded for
length of time someone has been a Season Ticket Holder or True Blue member. Most of those that
commented were opposed to the inducement of Loyalty Points to promote Club or sponsored
merchandise or events.
The majority of respondents agree that there is room for improvement in the current Loyalty Point
scheme, with only a small minority believing it to be totally flawed (16.8%) and even fewer thinking it is
completely fit for purpose (6.67%).
Loyalty point allocation and accumulation
Premier League fixtures
In general respondents favour the status quo with regard to allocation of loyalty points for home Premier
League games. A similar picture emerges for the sale of home Premier League games by Loyalty Points:
that is, all of the current category AA games plus West Ham.