Posted by Carl Johnstone on March 05, 1998 at 19:54:34:
Sorry to enter the conversation late, but I haven't been up to date. Anyway here's some info pon how the travel is run (to the best of my knowledge).
Ogden's aren't involved AT ALL in the away travel (probably because they don't want to be, although they did sell some tickets in season one ie blackburn?)
Some rinks would rather sell tickets to an organised group from the away team rather than have to sell tickets to 100+ individual fans if they can. Stormforce, as the official supporters club, nicely fill this gap. I expect that if another LARGE group had come forward then the other rinks would sell the tickets to them.
In the case of the Cardiff game, the rule regarding tickets only from Stormforce is by the management at the cardiff ice rink NOT Ogdens OR stormforce. The best place to complain about this would be to the cardiff management.
The tickets for the away rinks are sold at face value to anybody who approaches the stormforce desk, but stormforce obviously give priority to their members first. Coach travel is also provided for any fans but stormforce members get a discount on the coach fare only. (It's more convenient for stormforce to get tickets only for the people on the coach, as often they are not collected until the coach gets to the rink, and somebody has to stand and wait outside for the people in cars to arrive.)
I guess for Cardiff, two coaches had been booked (60 people already on coaches by presentation Evening!) and stormforce decided that they had to pay for the coaches somehow, so gave priority to people travelling on the coach, this is not the usual policy.
Ian, who arranges nearly all the stormforce travel (as a volaunteer) does a good job, but unfortunatley can't please all the people all the time. Anybody who thinks they could do a better job is welcome to stand for the stormforce committee, especially the assistant travel officer job, as this has been vacant this season! Personally I couldn't do the job, and if I want to go to an away game have to live with the rules set by the people that do the organisation (or make my own way)