Ticket admission only

[old sage]

I wonder what other peoples thoughts are with regard to the admission by ticket only policy? I saw huge queues purchasing tickets yesterday and thought how long will these folk be willing to queue especially if we are sitting in mid table? I know that it is possible to pay online but a lot of people are either wary of making online payments or don't have the internet facility. I feel that we will lose quite a few casual fans with the scheme. Fans shouldn't need to come to Vale Park twice to watch a game which is the case if you wish to pay either with cash or to avoid chaotic queues.

I feel that we should be encouraging supporters but fear that the present situation will actually discourage many less die hard supporters.

 

What are your thoughts folks?

[marky mark]

I wonder what other peoples thoughts are with regard to the admission by ticket only policy? I saw huge queues purchasing tickets yesterday and thought how long will these folk be willing to queue especially if we are sitting in mid table? I know that it is possible to pay online but a lot of people are either wary of making online payments or don't have the internet facility. I feel that we will lose quite a few casual fans with the scheme. Fans shouldn't need to come to Vale Park twice to watch a game which is the case if you wish to pay either with cash or to avoid chaotic queues.

I feel that we should be encouraging supporters but fear that the present situation will actually discourage many less die hard supporters.

 

What are your thoughts folks?

 

 

I think you have a point that casuals will not want to make two visits to the ground. Also they will not want to have to have the hassle of getting a ticket and then getting into the ground.

 

Tat said IF the club can get the PR right and online ticketing is working soon then this could be the solution. I think just allowing people to have their phone screen scanned would help. The casuals could do that when at the ground and then go and que up to get in. This then frees up the ticket office for those who don't or can't use this sort of method.

[Guppy 4 England]

I said it weeks ago. Apparently it's my own fault for not wanting to go to the ground twice or waste my time queuing for a ticket.

 

Great idea. Poorly implemented.

[Jinkin John Jeffers]

Great idea and once ticketmaster is up and running the majority will use this system. It cuts down on the chances of theft and I would say it cuts down the cost of insurance for the club. Yes it needs fine tuning but it will work once people are used to it. No one I spoke to yesterday had any problems with the new system

[Birches Head Valiant]

Great idea. Poorly implemented.

 

Agreed, great idea but I don't think it was sensible or practical to implement it in such a short timescale. Would have been better for next season and they could have introduced it gradually this season.

[ancient mariner]

They certainly need to stop selling the same seat twice !

My 2 tickets with allocated seating purchased last sunday,were both occupied by season ticket holders.

I was in the ground early and sat elsewhere but was worried about being asked to move if anyone else had been allocated

those seats.

Not very good as i had taken my grandaughter her first league match.

I will be having a word monday.

[geosname]

As a money grabbing git I dont usually agree with obstacles being put in the way of people giving me money, there are enough reasons for people not to part with their money without providing your own.

I think once up and running properly some of the weight will be taken off the queues at the ticket office, for those who have the equipment, by the print your own scheme. There seems to be some doubts about the phone download option because scanners may not read the screens.

I agree that cashless is better for security reasons but allowing away fans in paying cash muddies the water a little... Although there may have been no choice yesterday, for some reason.

What I find difficult to understand is why, at the present time, allocated seating is being pushed. Some say it isnt but smurf said it is. Given the problems noticed before yesterday I would have had tickets printed [it may have happened I dont know] with the bar codes ready for sale, "three adults please"... scan the tickets into the system.... take the cash... hand them over.... done.

Its a simple job to vary the access gates by stacking them in separate piles and vary where they are taken from... same for different parts of the ground... No need to print or wait, they could be mass produced and used until an assessment could be made on how many will be required when the system is fully operational.

For the diehard fans nothing much will deter them from attending, but is that enough to progress? Will it be enough to increase the budget for next year?.... I dont know the answers, it may all work perfectly... soon.... but I suspect that if the only way to increase the budget next year is to increase the ST prices drastically some of the diehards wouldnt be so keen.

[Rampant Zebra]

Great idea and once ticketmaster is up and running the majority will use this system. It cuts down on the chances of theft and I would say it cuts down the cost of insurance for the club. Yes it needs fine tuning but it will work once people are used to it. No one I spoke to yesterday had any problems with the new system

 

You didn't speak to any of the people waiting outside the Bycars while the IT man climbed over the turnstile to get the scanner working so we could get in then!

[The Waterboy]

The ticket office is poorly designed. That is the main problem. Why didn't they just have several windows facing out externally like every other club has? At least with several shorter queues there is a psychological benefit from not being in one massive queue. Advanced purchase sales (i'e for future matches and away matches), collections on internet and phone bookings and same day matchday tickets should have separate kiosks. It is common sense to not have everybody in one queue. I wanted to get Walsall and Oldham tickets today but simply didn't want to stand in one massive queue, effectively delaying others who had more urgent ticketing requirements.

 

As a season ticket holder I found the efficiency of getting into the ground at 2.45 ideal. No queues whatsoever at the actual turnstiles so they'll be 4,600+ supporters more than happy. The inefficiency of today simply would not be repeated if we went completely paperless. What is wrong with having tickets in the style of the season tickets that can have matches loaded onto them online or in bulk? Having a paper system at all when a credit card style ticket is available is simply backwards.

[valetillidye]

You didn't speak to any of the people waiting outside the Bycars while the IT man climbed over the turnstile to get the scanner working so we could get in then!

 

unfortunately **** happens

 

hopefully once we can print tickets on line well see the back of big queues, will a scanner break again? Probably, but for me I'm pleased that pay on the gate has gone for good

[bertiepee]

Its a bit like when we changed to decimal currancy, people said we would never get used to it. We had to and we did. Once online ticketing is introduced the queue at the ticket office will shrink. Keep up the good work mr smurf

[The Waterboy]

The queues are going to be super **** on Tuesday though as very few season ticket holders will have been bothered to queue to get a ticket yesterday. I'd be purchasing mine online right now if they'd got their fingers out of their ***** and got the internet site up and running before the start of the season. The online purchasing is an integral part to the system and frankly I feel that they shouldn't have gone all ticket until this purchasing option was online.

[Birches Head Fred]

I went to the ground at 9.10am to pick up a ticket for my son who chose to accompany me.........20Min queue and plenty more behind me. Not too much of a bother as I was passing anyway but I must say when we got to the ground for the match there seemed plenty in-line for tickets clogging up the shop doorway and the queue for the Railway Paddock too.

 

We queued for a short while at the Railway Stand gates and whilst near to the gates we saw 2 people who's season tickets were not 'registering' in the scanners.......they were told to report to the ticket office to have them re-scanned. Not happy bunnies knowing that they would now miss a considerable part of the first half!

Surely the ground staff could have let them in but asked them to visit the ticket office asap after the game to have the tickets rectified for future?, after all, it's not the fans fault their tickets didn't scan properly.

 

Teething problems for a few, but they will only alienate fans in the long run.

 

Personally, my ticket worked fine, but had it not my son would have been inside the ground with me stuck outside and there didn't appear any stewards or staff capable of making senior decisions.

[nowag]

I wonder what other peoples thoughts are with regard to the admission by ticket only policy? I saw huge queues purchasing tickets yesterday and thought how long will these folk be willing to queue especially if we are sitting in mid table? I know that it is possible to pay online but a lot of people are either wary of making online payments or don't have the internet facility. I feel that we will lose quite a few casual fans with the scheme. Fans shouldn't need to come to Vale Park twice to watch a game which is the case if you wish to pay either with cash or to avoid chaotic queues.

I feel that we should be encouraging supporters but fear that the present situation will actually discourage many less die hard supporters.

 

What are your thoughts folks?

 

And when its freezing or ****ing down will fans queue like they did yesterday the queue was almost on hamill rd when we arrived at 2.40pm,

the old ticket office had a note on the door telling away fans that they could pay at the turnstile,

[Fosse69]

Like most new things there are teething troubles, maybe Norman wants to advance too quickly, maybe we were promoted too early. As a ST holder it is a great system, but they are not for everyone. Online will help, a members card would help. Training and some re-org will help. Selling match tickets outside, and advance tickets inside could help. At least we have a few months before the cold weather, Walsall will test the system, what would it be like against a Prem club in the next round? These are learning days for Norman, it will be sorted.