Shrews back down over ticketing row
Shrewsbury Town have reacted to supporters’ criticism over their plans to charge for the rearranged game with Port Vale. The club will now not charge any fans who can provide their ticket stub from Tuesday’s game.
The fixture has had to be rearranged for a third time and is now set to take place on Tuesday April 17th. The first fixture fell victim of the weather while the second was abandoned in the second-half, due to a fire in the main stand.
The accepted procedure for games that are abandoned in mid-match is for clubs to allow supporters admission for free on production of their receipt or ticket stub, but instead Shrewsbury announced fans would be charged for the rearranged fixture.
But following heavy criticism on Shrewsbury Town fan sites and this website, a club statement on Friday notified supporters of the following:
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In this hectic week following the abandonment of the Port Vale match on Tuesday, the club have reviewed the pricing strategy for the re-scheduled fixture. The initial pricing structure took into consideration the extra costs of having to put on another high profile game and allowed for a proportion of the costs to be recouped.
After making our initial statement we have met with representatives of all of the supporter groups – Away Supporters Travel, Super Blues, Official Supporters Club, Blue and Amber, Shrewstrust and the Away Supporters Football Club and discussed the pricing structure. We have also listened to the views of the wider supporter community.
As a result of these discussions and communications, the club management has reflected and consulted further. It has been decided to issue a final structure for the replayed match on Tuesday 17th April.
1. As stated before season ticket holders will receive free entry to the match via the presentation of coupon A in their season ticket books.
2. Home and Away supporters were requested to keep hold of their ticket stubs in an announcement on Tuesday and in subsequent media and press releases. Only those supporters who present their ticket stubs for the Tuesday match will be entitled to a free ticket to the replay. This refers to both home and away fans. New tickets will be issued on exchange existing tickets are not valid for the new date (other than for exchange).
3. Those fans who attended, but did not keep their stubs, will not be able to claim a free ticket. All tickets for home and away fans without ticket stubs will be charged the £10 adult or £5 concession ticket price. Family tickets will be on a pro-rata basis.
4. The match will be all ticket for Port Vale fans.
5. A period of ticket exchange will take place. This will be during office hours from Monday, 2nd April to Saturday, 7th April. After this period ticket stubs will be void and not exchangeable.
Other £10 and £5 ticket sales will commence from Monday, 9th April. Port Vale fans please refer to your own office hours.
The Club is responding to these most difficult circumstances caused by the unprecedented events of Tuesday night in a positive manner, trying to ensure fairness to those who attended the match and have season tickets or who have retained ticket stubs as requested. This will effectively be an extra league fixture for the club with its associated costs.
Tickets will go on sale at 3pm on Friday 30th April 2012.
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OVF applauds this sensible decision.