English League One club Shrewsbury Town has apologised to its fans after there were complaints at the length of time it took to gain entry through Montgomery Waters Meadow’s new access control system.
In May, it was announced that Shrewsbury was working with Advanced to deploy its ticketing management platform, Talent. The club also worked with Skidata, which resulted in the implementation of automated turnstile entry for the first time.
After feedback from the fans, the club has said that it is “working with all parties involved to resolve the issues”.
However, Shrewsbury also noted that a large number of fans have been attempting to enter Montgomery Waters Meadow with just 20 minutes until kick-off, which exacerbated the issues. It advised fans to arrive in plenty of time to avoid queueing.
The club said in a statement: “After collecting data from the system, 5,092 fans attempted to get through the turnstiles in the 20 mins prior to kick-off (after 7:25pm). Subtract the number of away fans included in that number, and it would’ve required 13 fans to go through each of the 18 home turnstiles per minute in order for everyone to make it in on time.
“Therefore, where possible, we encourage fans to try to get into the stadium earlier to avoid long queues.”
Shrewsbury further stated that it would be looking into the quality of printing on tickets and season cards; IT infrastructure; what could be done to encourage the fans to enter the stadium earlier; if the system can be improved to scan tickets faster; and the implementation of queue management to increase efficiency.
“The situation will continue to be monitored and fans will be updated through the club’s online channels,” added the statement.
Image: James Humphreys – SalopianJames/ CC BY-SA 3.0/ Edited for size
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