Stoke City has apologised to fans after a fault with ticket supplier See 360 caused season ticket holders to be denied entry to the Championship club’s opening game of the 2019-20 season.
Approximately 140 supporters were left waiting outside the 30,000-capacity Bet365 Stadium for more than 20 minutes after Stoke’s games against Queens Park Rangers kicked off on August 3.
Fans were required to head to the ticket office to get their cards activated or receive paper ticket replacements.
The club’s current ticketing supplier, See 360, has confirmed there was a technical error in the coding of the ticketing system for those whose season cards were printed in the 10 days prior to the first home game.
The ticketing firm also said that other clubs who use their system and the same access control system has experienced the issue.
The letter, signed by head of ticketing Josh Whittaker-Vyse, said: “The cards had been printed by the club and appeared valid on our system but unfortunately there were no games (entitlements) loaded on the cards.
“This is why the cards showed ‘no valid ticket’ to the turnstile operators and supporters were correctly directed to the ticket office. The club has used this access system since 2013 and has not had any problems previously.
“We have now established this issue was caused by a technical error in the coding of the ticketing system for those whose season cards were printed in the 10 days prior to the first home game.”
Stoke City has also reimbursed fans the admission price of the game, loading the cash sum onto season cards to spend in the club shop or on next year’s ticket.
Whittaker-Vyse continued: “See360, our current ticketing supplier, have confirmed this was an issue also experienced by other clubs who use their ticketing system and the same access control system.
“The ticketing supplier has accepted its responsibility and apologised to the clubs, including ourselves.
“While we have identified that the issue was caused by a supplier, we accept full responsibility for the inconvenience experienced. We would like to apologise unreservedly for the delays.”
Image: Ronnie Macdonald
Share this