New system announced where all home supporters have their own smart card to gain access has been announced. Remembering the confusion at Wembley when simple Saints folk tried to enter using a scanner, good luck guys.
Sounds good to me I've been wanting something like this for a while, although what happens if someone else needs to use my seasont ticket? Will that still be allowed?
Apparently very costly to put in as well, but will save in the long term and prevent fraud. Hope no one get's laid off though. They said it will replace ST and paper tickets. Wonder if, like me you buy just a few tickets, that you get issued with a card for every game you book or if you buy a card and load it with games. All will be explained in good time.
At Bristol City they have cards for ST holders and paper tickets for people just buying them for the odd game. The paper tickets have a barcode on them so they go through the scanner aswell. I'd imagine it would be similar for Saints
Be even easier I'd have thought. Wonder how they will prevent someone buying a seniors ticket and letting an adult use it.
This could be great. Makes it much easier to buy extra tickets near season tickets if you want to bring a friend of family member to the odd game... Hopefully. The loyalty points scheme could also be a great benefit. Look forward to seeing how it works next season. Question is will they still use paper tickets for the away fans?
I see we are getting the same as Chelsea have, I will ask my mate who has a season ticket how it works, though he may not have a clue about non season ticket holders.
Reckon they will still want to scrutinise all away fans for troublemakers, whereas all us home fans are Saints
I've been to the Chelsea home end before with a friend and we were given paper tickets, self-scanned at the turnstiles. I would have thought buying for the odd game, you would be issued with paper tickets. We'll have to see...
Or will they reintroduce the members ticket which you can then load with games. If we go up it will be harder to get tickets (apart from ST) so it might be a money spinner to sell us 'members cards' at £20-25 pounds which give you some priority for booking games. After I sadly let my season ticket go, I used to pay for a membership. It's money for old rope as far as the club goes, but was useful when booking tickets.
I would imagine the answer to this is yes, Fran. Reading FC operate the smartcard system and you simply book online/phone up and your smartcard is 'charged up' for the intended match. Also a great idea that you can use the card for purchases in the concourse and in the Megastore, with the added incentive of a loyalty points programme.
Works fine at Emirates, I imagine it will be **** for the first few games as people get used to it but be fine in the long term.
It will all be factored into the price. I can see ST's being upwards of the £600 mark for the centre, £510 behind the goals and on the wing.
They have a similar system at the Cardiff stadium, they still use paper tickets but have scanners to check bar codes printed on them. The way they check you have the right type of ticket there is by coloured lights above the turnstiles (e.g. blue for young person ticket, green for elderly ticket) and a few people dotted around watching out for people that don't match the light colour. I'm sure people could still slip through and I'm not sure what the penalty is for having the wrong type of ticket, but if it is severe enough (e.g. the card/membership is revoked) then i would have thought people wouldn't risk it.
To be fair there is about a 99.9% chance of getting in on a concession if you are under about 30 and have a shave. The best time to catch dodgers is always at the ticket office, hence why they seem to ask for ID a lot more now. The whole ticket system has been in need of scrapping and starting again for a while now, so hopefully it work and is simple to use.
