CEO Brian Caldwell talks about matchday ticket purcases
Sunday’s final pre-season game at home to Hibs saw long queues ahead of the game as supporters looked to buy tickets from the main ticket office.The attendance of over 2,000 in total but a lot of supporters turned up close to the kick-off and were met with a wait for tickets.
Town’s CEO Brian Caldwell is looking into how the club can do better to ease the queues on the main ticket office.
“We definitely need to make sure we are better organised in the future if I’m honest”, said Brian.
“Hopefully the new West Stand ticket office will take 50% of the pressure off the main ticket office.
“One thing we have to remember is that the Hibs game was a non season ticket holder game and the crowd was bigger than we expected and the lunchtime kick-off didn’t help.
“We had sold only 400 tickets on Friday so we were expecting a smaller crowd than the one that turned up on the day.”
Supporters took to social media to discuss the ticketing issues and a number of them suggested cash turnstiles. Brian covered the reasoning why this is a tough thing to implement especially during the Sky Bet League 1 season.
“You always to try and get people to buy in advance and commit to the game as it allows us to prepare for the game better”, he added.
“We need to know as far as possible in advance how many are likely to attend the game so we can make sure the buffets have enough food, we have enough programmes and the other bits that we need to plan.
“We don’t want to run out of food we want to have enough for everyone but if we minimise the walk up it then it makes it easier to estimate.
“Apparently due to the S106 we have to have it this way for league games and can’t just open cash turnstiles.”
A new ticket office has been installed by the West Stand and it is hoped that this will ease the pressure on the main ticket office.
“We will have two windows for buying tickets and one for uplifts (collections) in the new ticket office by the West Stand”, added Brian.
“We have found around 50% of supporters who walk up on matchdays buy tickets for the West Stand so hopefully that will alleviate half of the problem.
“The ease of buying a ticket beside the turnstiles at the West Stand will speed up entry to the stadium and should make the whole process a lot easier for supporters.”
The Sky Bet League 1 seasons kicks off on Saturday when MK Dons visits the Greenhous Meadow. The opening game historically sees a big crowd and Brian is urging supporters to buy tickets in advance if they can.
“I would encourage buying in advance if you can as it always makes it easier for everybody”, said Brian.
“You can also buy in advance and arrive at Greenhous Meadow and your tickets are waiting for you for collection from the one of the collection points.
“There are plenty of ways of buying in advance whether that is online or just to pop to the ticket office during the week, we are open every day 9am until 5pm.
“Or on matchday the ticket office is open from 10am so supporters can pop down any time to purchase theirs.
“If you are a floating supporter then season tickets are still on sale if you fancy beating the queues on matchday or try one of the flexi tickets which make it cheaper to buy in advance.”
When purchasing tickets for games from Shrewsbury Town supporters will need their supporter number. If you don’t have one you can register on the ticket system anytime to get your Supporter number as it speeds up purchasing on matchday and gives priority to high profile games.
To register click - Shrewsbury Town Online Tickets