Patrons caught in cricket fiasco
Venue in spin to fix ticketing failure
CRICKET Tasmania says it is confident on- time arrivals to tonight’s Blundstone Arena match won’t miss any play, as stadium contingency measures were hurried in to address an entry ticketing glitch.
Hundreds of cricket fans queued along Church Street outside Blundstone Arena’s southern gate for an hour before Saturday’s match between the Hobart Hurricanes and the Melbourne Stars started.
Cricket Tasmania said ticket scanning equipment failed, causing entry delays.
The glitch forced organisers to adopt a manual system for sighting tickets that took until the seventh over of play until all patrons were let in.
Cricket Tasmania said the delays were exacerbated by COVID- safe requirements.
“Under normal circumstances, patrons would have the choice of which gate they enter the venue by, thus alleviating such problems occurring,” a Cricket Tasmania statement said.
“Additional staff were positioned at the impacted gate to facilitate the manual entry process.
“To operate Blundstone Arena in a COVID- safe manner, the facility is separated into zones to provide for thorough contact tracing should it be required, which meant patrons impacted by the technical error couldn’t use alternate entry points.”
A Cricket Tasmania statement about the mishap posted to social media attracted plenty of feedback from fans whose BBL viewing was shortened.
“The lack of organisation at the game was a disgrace,” wrote Sonia Myer. “The patrons could have arrived at lunch time and still would have not got through the gate on time.”
Nikki Smythe said there was “nothing COVID- safe about the event at all”.
“To operate in a COVIDsafe manner and look at the people crammed in like sardines, you’re joking, right?” she wrote.
Cricket Tasmania venue operations general manager Stephen McMullen said arrangements were in place for Monday night’s Blundstone Arena game, including the relocation of a turnstile to the southern gate entrance.
He said CA would be opening gates 15 minutes early for the repeat BBL match between Hobart Hurricanes and Melbourne Stars.