CEO Brian Caldwell explains the decision to have Ticketmaster take care of Wembley tickets
Town have announced ticket details for the CheckaTrade Final that will go on sale on Monday.
The clubs ticketing partner Ticketmaster will be handling all sales due to the short time scale that the club have to sell tickets.
It’s a decision that has brought criticism from some supporters and CEO Brian Caldwell has been explaining the decision.
“We had a difficult decision to make and let’s be honest we’ve taken a bit of flack about the decision to sell the tickets through Ticketmaster.” said Brian.
“We only have just over 3 weeks to sell the tickets, they go off sale on Wednesday 4th as they have to go back to Wembley after then.
“A lot of fans have looked at it and gone “why are you selling through Ticketmaster?” They have the expertise and we have 20,000 tickets to sell in 3 weeks.
“People are looking at Lincoln and comparing us to them, but they have had an extra 5 weeks to sell than us.
“I understand the frustration from some fans. We want to sell the tickets ourselves but with such a tight timescale you’ve got to put your hands up and look at what the best solution is.”
A number of supporters have highlighted that they do not like to book online or over the phone and Brian has looked at solutions for this.
From 10am on Tuesday 13th March supporters will be able to come to the Montgomery Waters ticket office and the staff will help them process their order through Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster will then post the tickets out to the supporter; the same fees apply as a normal online purchase.
“For anyone who doesn’t have Internet access or who is uncomfortable phoning up Ticketmaster they will be able to come down to the stadium and we will help them", said Brian.
“While we won’t be able to hand them their tickets, as all the tickets are with Ticketmaster, we will be able to process their booking through the ticket office and the staff will help them with that.
“Ticketmaster will then pick up that booking and the tickets will be sent to the address that the supporter chooses.”
It’s been a tough decision for the club to take, but it’s one that has been done after taking advice from a number of clubs who have previously got to the CheckaTrade final at Wembley.
“I was at a recent EFL meeting and a number of clubs who have been to the CheckaTrade final spoke to me”, said Brian.
“They said if you get to Wembley we will give you one bit of advice, don’t handle the tickets for the final yourself.
“I was speaking to the guys from Walsall today and they were in the final a few years ago and they reiterated that advice that the others had given me.”