There were a number of issues with the ticketing for the Burton Albion game on Tuesday night
The club are aware that some supporters experienced problems and delays getting into the Carabao Cup game with Burton Albion on Tuesday night.
We have been monitoring the feedback and have noted that there were issues with the following.
Queues
Supporters reported that it was taking over 30 minutes to purchase tickets at the main ticket office. Near to 500 tickets were sold in the 30 minutes before kick-off and the queues had been served just after kick-off.
One of the ticket systems failed on the evening, which meant only three of the four windows were able to serve tickets. All the systems are now operational ahead of the Blackpool game.
On a normal matchday with four windows in operation, to sell 500 tickets in 30 minutes requires over four tickets being sold every minute. This is while making sure supporters accounts are noted to attribute their loyalty points.
The club have encouraged supporters over previous seasons to try and purchase in advance if at all possible. We understand that coming to the game can be a last minute decision at times but if you are planning to come to a game and have the time we do advise purchasing in advance.
As the Burton game was a Carabao Cup game it meant that season ticket holders needed to purchase tickets through the ticket office which out extra pressure on the ticket office.
The club apologise to any supporters who felt that the ticket buying process wasn't satisfactory.
Collections
Part of problem was that supporters were buying in advance theirs and others tickets using their FanCard or ST card and then went to pick them up. The ticket system automatically loads their ticket to their FanCard/Season Ticket but any extras purchased by the season ticket/fancard holders are printed as physical tickets and need to be collected. Many came without their ST and FanCard as they thought they would pickup four tickets but only three in envelope so staff had to then reprint the ST ticket or FanCard as a ticket to solve this which caused delays.
Season Ticket/FanCard Confirmation Emails
There was some confusion due to the wording on the confirmation emails that are sent after a ticket transaction is complete. The club is currently working with Ticketmaster to get these updated.
FanCard Problems
Majority of FanCards worked as they should but there were problems with some such as those detailed above. We are trying to get data from those FanCards, which had problems to try and see if there were similar problems.
Season Ticket Holders add to card
A matchday ticket was added to the season ticket holder’s card as normal, but some experienced the problems outlined above with multiple purchases. For cup games the game is added to the season ticket holder’s card, no physical ticket is needed.
West Stand Ticket Office
As the Assist Group Stand was closed for this game this meant the ticket office by that stand was not opened. With hindsight it would probably be better for this to be open for all games to help ease the pressure on the main ticket office.
We are looking to re-site the West Stand ticket office to the South West Corner to deal with this issue and also encourage fans to go to Safe Standing to use this. We opened just the Salop Leisure and main stand for the Yeovil Checkatrade game with a 4000+ crowd and had no such issues; we are looking to see what was done differently at both games.
Print At Home Cut Off
Print at home comes off sale at the same time as online sales as both need to come off sale pre-match, usually for night games at 6.30pm.
Telephones
We are looking into how the response to phone calls can be improved. Priority is given to those supporters who are queuing to purchase tickets so at times of high demand at the windows, response to phone calls will be limited.
Safe Standing
Supporters mentioned the delays to get their wristbands to access the safe standing area. We have looked to address this in terms of the time taken to put a wristband on and the number of stewards fitting the wristbands. As with all games please give yourselves adequate time to access the turnstiles, collect your wristband and take your place in the safe standing area. We have also had feedback that some standing spaces were double sold but this is not the case providing all supporters stand in their allocated space. We understand there has been some confusion in relation to which row is which, we are looking to resolve this by making the rows more easily identified.
The club will continue to look into the reported problems and will look to improve the ticket buying process should we highlight any further problems.
If you experienced problems getting tickets ahead of the Burton game please get in touch with info@shrewsburytown.co.uk to share your experience.