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There were two schemes being run by the club at the start of the season to help the travelling Tiger Nation get tickets for away games. Firstly, there's the Away Direct scheme in which subscribing fans would be guaranteed an away ticket for all away games as long as they didn't miss more than three games. The other was fans who went to 5 away games last season using their customer reference number to book their ticket getting a preferential chance of getting a ticket over those who didn't.

I know that if you are a loyal fan these are great schemes as they greatly improve your chance of getting tickets to see the Tigers at some of the better stadiums in the country and against some of the bigger more interesting teams (although Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City away are just as juicy as Manchester United and Chelsea away to me).

However, these schemes were put in place long before the club realised the huge demand there would be for away tickets from new and existing fans of the Tigers alike. In hindsight these two schemes seem like bad business.

If you were in Paul Duffen's shoes, what would you do? I know the schemes reward loyal fans but what else do they do? By instead issuing tickets in a lottery draw they could possibly be opened up to a wider fan base and help to pour more money into the club. It would sate the appetite for all things Hull City for many fans that would love to see the Tigers away but because of the existing schemes' exclusivity (been there, seen it, done it) to longer-serving fans, new Tigers can't break into the old boys' clique.

Having only a small allocation of away tickets available to the new fraternity of the Tiger Nation and preferentially allocating them to the minority that have followed the Tigers through thick and thin and try to go to every away game will alienate a huge market for the club to generate profit and bring on future fans for the Tigers.

As it is, without these new Tigers fans will the Premiership dream still be alive in a couple of years? Hull City needs you, not just the old fan but the new ones too.

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