Digital revolution is a turn-off for fans
They are braced for enormous queues and chaos outside grounds as the top flight embraces ticket technology
THE Premier League turnstiles are about to swing back into action and fans will approach with a sense of apprehension not merely limited to the readiness of their team for the big kick-off.
Twelve months on from enormous queues and scenes of chaos outside the grounds caused by another lurch towards digital ticketing, more top-flight clubs are about to embrace the revolution. That means more supporters braced for the inevitable disruptions and hidden costs.
West ham have found themselves under fire ahead of the opening game of the season against Manchester City, with an online petition gathering signatures and complaints from fans who would rather not move to a digital-only system.
The club extended booking office ticket hours to cope, promised more staff will be on the gates on Sunday and have ultimately now agreed to provide supporters with a ‘print at home’ option for tickets for the match.
But the hammers are not the first to head down the digital path and they will not be the last.
Several clubs made the move at the start of last season when crowds first returned to capacity after the pandemic.
During the Covid lockdowns starting in 2020, the Premier League wrote into their rules that clubs should look to be ‘digital first’ to stop paper tickets being passed hand to hand, spreading the virus. But the rule no longer exists, and the decision is once again down to the individual clubs, although the direction of travel is set and it is clearly advancing towards more digital tickets.
There is no holding back the march of technology. It is much cheaper, cleaner and more environmentally friendly. It is also more secure, and the added measure of control is appealing for the clubs.
They will have a much better understanding of who is in each seat, how often they actually attend, what time they arrive at the stadium, how they consume what they like to call the ‘match day experience’. It can help track down culprits if there is disorder in the stands and is proving to be a crucial weapon in the long fight against ticket touting.
Plenty of fans prefer it. They find it more convenient to know the ticket is on their phone and in their pocket without needing to think about printing it at home or going to a collection point, but there are plenty who disapprove for various reasons.
Some just don’t like change. Football fans by definition are creatures of habit. Some collect ticket stubs for sentimental reasons in the way they collected match- day programmes, something else that is under threat.
Some dread this shifting landscape and the increasing pressure from all angles to surrender personal data. Where does it end, with face recognition technology at the turnstiles?
Others find it is an unnecessary complication — and an additional expense — if they are sharing season ticket passes or cannot attend and want to pass the ticket to a friend or family member.
extra charges are increasingly
set on transfers, membership fees to be part of the scheme or simply an administration fee to receive an e-ticket, or to list on the ticket exchange.
Clubs might argue that tickets should not be transferable. You cannot transfer a season ticket on the trains if you are not travelling, for example, but football is a different entity.
Fans are loyal to their colours not passing trade and prices have soared, with more costs often hiding behind every twist of new technology. Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish backtracked after criticism yesterday on plans to charge a £40 membership fee plus additional administration charges for fans to be part of a ticket transfer scheme.
‘Passing on tickets among friends and family is a part of fan culture and something the FSA generally supports,’ was the response of the Football Supporters’ Association on Twitter, in response to Palace’s initial proposals.
‘Putting the ability to do that behind a £50 paywall and dumping the admin on to fans isn’t exactly progress.’
The complexities of the individual ticketing systems for every single club in the country are like a tangled web. The more complicated the better to hide and deflect outrage — that is how it seems.
On a simpler level, there are those, particularly from older generations, facing genuine practical issues because they do not own a smartphone or rarely use one.
David Cracknell is 88 years old. A lifelong West Ham fan and a season-ticket holder in the Billy Bonds Stand, he does not use a smartphone and was moved to make the journey to the London Stadium ticket office yesterday because he feared he might miss Sunday’s game against champions City.
West Ham have used a form of digital tickets over the last two seasons and say 98 per cent of supporters entered the London Stadium last season using Near Field Communication technology,
Football fans are creatures of habit. They don’t like change. And older generations often don’t own a smartphone
the same thing that enables safe contactless payments.
The new system had been trialled extensively. There were long queues at the turnstiles ahead of a game against Newcastle in February when 2,000 ticket holders were using the system.
Those clubs who introduced the system last season reported problems at the turnstiles caused by a combination of the technology struggling to cope with the volume and users who did not know what they were supposed to be doing.
There were queues of supporters snaking down the Anfield Road before Liverpool’s opening game of last season against Burnley. There were similar stories elsewhere, and photographs circulated on social media, including from games at West Ham, Palace and Southampton.
‘When clubs are making big changes to their ticketing operations, like going all digital, we expect clubs to consult their supporters about it as a matter of course,’ an FSA spokesperson told Sportsmail.
‘All supporters should be able to get into the ground easily and efficiently. We saw last season the problems at the turnstiles that can come with untested digital-only systems.
‘We will continue to monitor the introduction of the technology in the game but in the meantime we believe that supporters who need a physical rather than digital ticket should be accommodated.’