Flexible bulk tickets?

[North Banker]

yeah, never understood why Season ticket holders had to buy a physical paper ticket for cup games. Surely not that difficult to add to the season ticket?

It would make purchasing online so much easier too, everything could be done and paid for online, you wouldn't have to go and pick up a ticket and the ticket office would need to do anything, you would just turn up at the game and swipe the card at the turnstile.

Realistically I don't think we have the technology nor the expertise to do something like that at the moment (although I'd love to be proved wrong), but perhaps this is the sort of thing we should be thinking of when we install new technology at Fossetts Farm (however distant that may seem).

 

[TJC]

Realistically I don't think we have the technology nor the expertise to do something like that at the moment (although I'd love to be proved wrong).

I think it must be the latter.

 

[united we stand]

It would make purchasing online so much easier too, everything could be done and paid for online, you wouldn't have to go and pick up a ticket and the ticket office would need to do anything, you would just turn up at the game and swipe the card at the turnstile.

Realistically I don't think we have the technology nor the expertise to do something like that at the moment (although I'd love to be proved wrong), but perhaps this is the sort of thing we should be thinking of when we install new technology at Fossetts Farm (however distant that may seem).

I think the issue to overcome is seat allocation . By law you have to be allocated a seat. The only way this would work that I can think of using today's technology is that you still had to go to the ticket office to get a ticket and they 'debited' a match from your card and/or you could use the card to purchase a ticket on line . It does mean that unlike a 'normal' season ticket your seat is not guaranteed--- unless of course the club left your seat as 'reserved' until a certain time (12.00 match day for instance) , and if you had not reserved on line/phone/ticket office by that point it was open to being sold.

 

[North Banker]

I think the issue to overcome is seat allocation . By law you have to be allocated a seat. The only way this would work that I can think of using today's technology is that you still had to go to the ticket office to get a ticket and they 'debited' a match from your card and/or you could use the card to purchase a ticket on line . It does mean that unlike a 'normal' season ticket your seat is not guaranteed--- unless of course the club left your seat as 'reserved' until a certain time (12.00 match day for instance) , and if you had not reserved on line/phone/ticket office by that point it was open to being sold.

Well that's the benefit of getting a season ticket. The idea of this system is that you would go on the website/visit the ticket office before the game to add this game to your card, and at that point you pick your seat. Obviously the earlier you do this the better chance you have of getting the seat you want, and there's nothing stopping you selecting multiple games in advance to reserve your seat. Just like the current system, you are rewarded for committing to the game/paying for tickets in advance.

 

[Cockle43]

I like the ideas of a fully flexible option, Saturdays only and online top ups.

The fully flexible option would probably need more admin than it would save as, as united we stand says above, the law relating to football grounds states that everyone must have an allocated seat so the need to administer this would probably be a nightmare. Would you really want to have to go through the hassle of ringing the ticket office to get your seat confirmed every time you want to attend and probably with a fair bit of notice as the club might want to sell the seat allocated to your card if you didn't want it that particular week. So not sure the gains would be there for the club.

Saturdays only could well be a runner as someone could be allocated the same seat for each Saturday on the card. Only fly in the ointment would be if a postponed game was rearranged from a Saturday to a mid-week evening.

Online top ups a la Oyster would be good but again it raises the allocated seat/resale of unwanted seat issue and not sure our technology is currently up to this, could be at Fossett's in the future, but can't see any money being spent on any upgrades of technology at Roots Hall.

Good to see people thinking about different approaches.

With about 85% of votes favouring some sort of mini card then I will almost certainly take it forward and will give all the ideas to the powers that be.

 

[McNasty]

I like the ideas of a fully flexible option, Saturdays only and online top ups.

The fully flexible option would probably need more admin than it would save as, as united we stand says above, the law relating to football grounds states that everyone must have an allocated seat so the need to administer this would probably be a nightmare. Would you really want to have to go through the hassle of ringing the ticket office to get your seat confirmed every time you want to attend and probably with a fair bit of notice as the club might want to sell the seat allocated to your card if you didn't want it that particular week. So not sure the gains would be there for the club.

Saturdays only could well be a runner as someone could be allocated the same seat for each Saturday on the card. Only fly in the ointment would be if a postponed game was rearranged from a Saturday to a mid-week evening.

Online top ups a la Oyster would be good but again it raises the allocated seat/resale of unwanted seat issue and not sure our technology is currently up to this, could be at Fossett's in the future, but can't see any money being spent on any upgrades of technology at Roots Hall.

Good to see people thinking about different approaches.

With about 85% of votes favouring some sort of mini card then I will almost certainly take it forward and will give all the ideas to the powers that be.

Trevor, the powers that be are already looking at these threads. Obviously the offer as it stands needs a good take up or else nothing is likely to change.

 

[Cockle43]

Trevor, the powers that be are already looking at these threads. Obviously the offer as it stands needs a good take up or else nothing is likely to change.

That's good to hear, Ken, I was hearing today that they've sold just south of 7,000 already for Saturday so let's hope a fair number are on the three match deal then.
Got to give credit to the club for the three match deal I think it's certainly an attention grabber.