English Championship club Rotherham United is trialling a ticketing ‘buy back’ scheme which will allow season ticket holders to recoup most of the cost of their ticket if they are unable to attend games.
The scheme will be utilised for fixtures that have sold out or are extremely close to selling out.
The move comes after Rotherham’s match against Stoke City on Boxing Day saw a number of empty seats despite the game being marketed as ‘sold out’.
This is because the club’s ticketing system had reached capacity for match-by-match sales against those already sold to season ticket holders for the 2022-23 campaign.
However, once the match had kicked off, the club could see that the number of supporters inside the 12,000-capacity AESSEAL New York Stadium was not reflective of the tickets sold.
Should a season ticket holder decide to sell back their ticket to Rotherham United, they will receive 75% of the pro-rate match-by-match cost of their season ticket once the club has successfully resold that seat.
An adult season ticket holder in the Eric Twigg Pukka Pies West Stand costs £460 ($570/€523) for 23 games, which means per match it is £20. This means that 75% is £15 back in the pocket of supporters if they decide to sell their ticket back to the club.
The same calculation will be used for half season tickets, though this will be pro-rata for 11 games.
The trial has already begun and the ‘buy back’ scheme is available for the currently sold out match against Sheffield United on February 4.