One new benefit ATL is adding for season ticket holders in 2023: free away tickets. I’m sure some venues will have capacity constraints on number of freebies, but it will be interesting to see how much it’s used. I imagine it will be the cheap seats in the away supporters section, but that’s not clear yet.
The Falcons added this benefit for certain club seats last season. I don’t buy club seats for the Falcons, but I won a contest for an ell expenses paid road trip last season and I got seated with the rest of the season ticket holders exercising that benefit. I met one couple going to all of the Falcons away games last year. They weren’t bad seats: lower corner.
Interesting. In soccer, the away tickets are priced by the home team, depending a lot on the away team. The away stand is always in the same place (Camp Nou has them way up high, at most most EPL matches, they are low and on one side of the goal, might be a league-wide mandate), and always heavily guarded.
Not sure what the policy is in the MLS regarding away seats. Seems as if each stadium has a designated section like the rest of the soccer universe, according to reddit. For NAS-ATL, the Nashville stadium changes the away section to 303-305. For other games, it’s Section 104.
Tell you what, if you get an extra seat for either L.A. team, I’ll go with you. I promise not to support the L.A. team.
The NFL doesn’t seem to have a policy at all (Google search failure). There might be an allocation of tickets to the team for friends and families (maybe a visiting suite, cuz, no rabble), but not to fans.
I’d like to know it, since there seems to be one based on your experience and knowledge. It might be a secret policy.
At home Chargers games, there is a section for Charger season ticket holders (zing!).
I have traveled and sat in the away supporters section for a number of matches. Clubs tend to have a section or sections for away fans, but there is some flexibility. The tickets are usually quite cheap, but they’ve never been free before.
ATL has up to a section available in the middle deck for away fans most games, but if the upper deck is open they move the away supporters there. Even then, if the away side isn’t committing to many tickets they’ll sell a portion of the section to home fans. Example from this week, with pic: Orlando had few fans in the away section (<20 to my eyes) so ATL left a buffer of a few rows blocked and sold the rest to ATL fans.
Charlotte was the worst in terms of away seating that I’ve been to. There was no buffer between groups of fans, and the security escort was poorly done. Nothing bad happened that I am aware of, but it’s a confrontation waiting to happen. Haven’t seen that in any of the other away matches I’ve been to (LAFC, MTL, PHL, RBNY, NSH).
AFAIK, NFL teams do save a few seats for friends and family of players, but there’s no dedicated section. I don’t think there are any specifically saved for away fans anywhere in the NFL. I believe the Falcons are buying these for eligible fans either from the opponent or on the open market.
I think they’d have to plan that way in advance, before single tickets are available for the games. Talk to each team, maybe offer a reciprocation next time the team is in town (four years later, for other-conference teams). Would need to get interest level for each game from their own fans before asking to buy X number of away tix.
And it would be nice to have a secured section instead of all over the stadium, subject to the worst fan nearby.
I do think there is some “professional courtesy” in how big an away section should be allotted in MLS. Teams rarely take their whole away allotment in ATL but they do sometimes.
I remember a pissing match with Portland over their allotment in the MLS Cup final in 2018. They got allotted 1300 seats, but wanted a much bigger share of the stadium at the cheap cost. Of course they could buy seats on the open market like everyone else.
We were scattered around in a section or 2 of the lower corner in MIA. No dedicated area, mixed in with fans of the other club. I agree that the soccer way of a dedicated away section is far superior
In other leagues, it seems that the away team is required to buy them. There is usually no issue finding fans to attend, because most countries are tiny compared with the USA. And if they can’t sell them all, tough shit for the away team. You’ll often see half-filled away sections when it’s MCI v some Bulgarian team in UCL, because that’s just too far, and midweek. Works out evenly, though, so let’s not cry for billionaire owners.
Google result note: Sporting KC also provides away tickets for free.
First line:
Sporting Kansas City is proud to provide our traveling supporters with free tickets to road games.
Then there are a bunch of policies to follow.
NYCFC:
Who is eligible for $10 away match tickets?
In order to receive this benefit, you must be a registered member of The Third Rail or be a City Member. Each City Member or Supporter may receive (1) $10 ticket for every full season seat or supporter membership on their account, whichever is greater. They may not be combined. Any additional requested tickets would be at full cost.
This does not guarantee you a ticket to each away match, as group priority, venue restrictions, ticket allotment will dictate availability.
I think a bunch of the away matches I went to in the supporters section had prices in the $15-30 range. They were all relatively cheap. Maybe LAFC was a little more, but it wasn’t bad. They are typically some of the worst seats in the stadium.
I find this to be an odd benefit to offer. I believe all away ticket purchases are coordinated though the away FO anyway. I guess it’s to encourage more away fans, but as it’s been mentioned before, the away fans sit in the cheap sections. I don’t think the actual ticket price is the limiting factor. My bar tab at the pre-game spot is usually more than what I pay for an away ticket.
An interesting aside, the Seattle supporters group boycotted Austin away match because away tickets were $70 and it was a midweek match.
Interesting. According to wikipedia, Toronto fans were allotted 3000 tickets at the 2019 final in Seattle, which is a smaller stadium. I’m curious if that decision was related to what happened in 2018 or the Seattle FO just made a different decision on away section size.
My impression is that these disagreements are sometimes affected by how similar regular season matches are handled.
FWIW there seems to be a loosely enforced FIFA guideline of 5% of away fans. I think it may be enforced for Champions League, but for COVID attendance caps. It’s a bit simpler when the agreement is for away clubs to buy the whole allotment like DTNF describes.
Seating capacity. The 2018 MLS Cup attendance at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was 73,019, the 2019 MLS Cup attendance at (then called) CenturyLink Field was 69,274, including standing room only seats.
Speaking of Portland, the away section at their stadium is absolutely horrible. It’s concrete bleachers, you can’t see the scoreboard or the game clock and your view is partially obstructed by support pillars.
The view from the away seats in Vancouver on the other hand is great. But it’s hard to beat the scenic mountain view at the Salt Lake stadium
MLS Cup is an odd duck being played at one of the home stadiums of its participants, leaving the away team either not getting enough tickets or not enough fans wanting to go because it’s too far away and only two weeks’ notice in getting there.
Need a National Stadium for Soccer. Knock down that shithole in St Louis and build a real, outdoor grass soccer stadium the size of Camp Nou. Hell, you could just take the top off, put a cover over the fans (in case of snow or rain), install some real grass, play ALL of our National M/W and MLS NWSL Championship matches there. That will rebuild St Louis into something it could be proud of, instead of CTE Football.
