Ticket office opening times?

[Linz]

With the comments about matchday queuing, do you think a change in the ticket office hours would alleviate some of the issues?

It took a while for me to find the ticket office opening hours online, but they are:

Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm.
Saturday (non-matchday), 9am-12noon.
Matchday, 9am-kick off and for 10 minutes after the final whistle.

So if you work "normal" office hours, you've no choice but to go and queue on matchday if you need to speak to the ticket office in person.

Would an 8pm finish two nights a week improve matters?

I'd be interested to hear your views to take to the SLO meeting.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

Working 9-5 precludes me getting tickets in person on anything other than match day but even if I could, I wouldn't.

I'd hazard a guess that the vast majority live far enough away from the lane for it to be more than a 10 minute 'pop down' - mainly because it's in the city centre with traffic etc.

The solution is not longer or different opening hours but to remove the pressure from the ticket office with things such as print at home tickets or them booths like they have at cine world. Or issue every member with a season ticket style card that is activated when a match day ticket is bought. These solutions are on offer for every single other event I can think of apart from football - they have an online system but for all intents and purposes every single ticket sale still relies on a person behind a counter.

It has to be said, getting tickets for the match should be as easy as possible but in reality it's a bit of a faff.

 

[Linz]

The solution is not longer or different opening hours but to remove the pressure from the ticket office with things such as print at home tickets or them booths like they have at cine world. Or issue every member with a season ticket style card that is activated when a match day ticket is bought. These solutions are on offer for every single other event I can think of apart from football - they have an online system but for all intents and purposes every single ticket sale still relies on a person behind a counter.

I know that - but the investment in such a system is probably a step too far for a league one club to think about in the short term.

I'm trying to think of a fix to alleviate at least a little of the pressure now (especially if we have a good season). Those who live further away will still need to go down on matchday, but the queue might not include all the people from Sheffield who were otherwise prevented from getting down to the ticket office during the week.

Really, how many people do they get through the door at 9am on a Wednesday morning that couldn't be there later in the day?

There was talk of a "collect in-person" option for online tickets which could take place in a different outlet but I don't think this has been initiated.

 

[MobileBlade]

In fairness Linz, to open the ticket office late for a couple of nights every week will probably cost them best part of £500. The return on investment for things like print at home tickets or a mobile ticket booth won't take that long.

 

[Linz]

In fairness Linz, to open the ticket office late for a couple of nights every week will probably cost them best part of £500. The return on investment for things like print at home tickets or a mobile ticket booth won't take that long.

Then why not stagger the hours? Open at midday instead of 9am and add the three hours on at the end of the day.

 

[Coily]

With the comments about matchday queuing, do you think a change in the ticket office hours would alleviate some of the issues?

It took a while for me to find the ticket office opening hours online, but they are:

Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm.
Saturday (non-matchday), 9am-12noon.
Matchday, 9am-kick off and for 10 minutes after the final whistle.

So if you work "normal" office hours, you've no choice but to go and queue on matchday if you need to speak to the ticket office in person.

Would an 8pm finish two nights a week improve matters?

I'd be interested to hear your views to take to the SLO meeting.

My query isn't with the opening hours as much as the availability of online tickets for John Street. I see no reason why you have to phone and buy tickets, could they not mandate on the purchase area that concession tickets must be purchased as well as adults? The last two occasions that has meant over 20 minutes of that awful Let Me Hold You nonsense when I should have been able to login and buy online.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

I know that - but the investment in such a system is probably a step too far for a league one club to think about in the short term.

I'm trying to think of a fix to alleviate at least a little of the pressure now (especially if we have a good season). Those who live further away will still need to go down on matchday, but the queue might not include all the people from Sheffield who were otherwise prevented from getting down to the ticket office during the week.

Really, how many people do they get through the door at 9am on a Wednesday morning that couldn't be there later in the day?

There was talk of a "collect in-person" option for online tickets which could take place in a different outlet but I don't think this has been initiated.

They have a match day collect in person facility separate from the main office already.

I dont think its too far. The turnstiles are already there and work on a bar code system. I'm happy to be proven otherwise but i see no reason why they wouldn't recognise a sheet of paper printed at home, or better still, just open a PDF on my phone to flash it under the turnstile.

 

[HeCanDoMagic]

I saw the suggestion the other day to have automated ticket collection points (like they have at the cinema), think that a good idea.

Now we have bar-code system of turnstiles, could people print their own tickets if bought on line?

2 later shifts for the box office would be a good start though.

Although I don't think its a situation (all this queueing on match-day) that is entirely the clubs fault though.

In addition, didn't we used to have a ticket office in the Co-Op (Castle Market)? Shame we cant have anything like that now really.

 

[HeCanDoMagic]

Also, didn't we used to have a ticket selling point on the corner of the Kop/John Street on match-days, opposite the chippy?

 

[MobileBlade]

Then why not stagger the hours? Open at midday instead of 9am and add the three hours on at the end of the day.

I don't know the staffing rota systems there at the moment but would suggest it is almost at its limits. If you lose three hours off a morning to add to the evening all you are doing is moving one problem to another. Therefore to add the extra hours would involve either extra staff or overtime. There are additional costs involved for the opening the office as well not just staff.

Not suggesting for one minute it is a bad idea - just saying if you are going to invest in extra opening hours, they would be better investing in technology.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Probably not for every match, but for most, why not have turnstiles that take debit cards? Not too much of a technology leap, print a receipt type slip with seat number(s) on.

 

[jt64]

Pity that the cheapest on the day price is just too expensive for most contactless cards, which'd make things even easier (think they only go up to 20 quid?)

With the comments about matchday queuing, do you think a change in the ticket office hours would alleviate some of the issues?

I'd say wait and see if the new phone system makes any effect. If someone needs to talk to an actual human and wouldn't have been able to because of work, that you can now call on a lunch break and not be charged the earth on your mobile might solve a lot of issues. But as a few people have said, limited in person opening hours needs to be looked at in the context of the ticketing operation as a whole - if someone really needs to be able to go down to the Lane in non-office hours, finding out why would be the first step.

 

[diplomat]

With the comments about matchday queuing, do you think a change in the ticket office hours would alleviate some of the issues?

It took a while for me to find the ticket office opening hours online, but they are:

Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm.
Saturday (non-matchday), 9am-12noon.
Matchday, 9am-kick off and for 10 minutes after the final whistle.

So if you work "normal" office hours, you've no choice but to go and queue on matchday if you need to speak to the ticket office in person.

Would an 8pm finish two nights a week improve matters?

I'd be interested to hear your views to take to the SLO meeting.

As a small piece of feedback, and let's say we win a home game, and it was a good game, and we're on a promotion drive, and people might actually stay and clap the team off. Would a little bit longer than ten minutes after the final whistle be a good idea? ..... Last season ten minutes after the final whistle I was in the concourse.

If they've made it ten minutes because no one buys tickets after the game then a) don't open it at all (save on lecky and wages) or b) advertise over the tannoy that they are open for the next game (with more emphasis) and stay open for longer and let some feel good factor allow impulse buying.