AN EASY WAY TO STAY SH-LOCAL
IMAGINE an App that helped to sell out your club’s home fixtures?
Well, imagine no more as Trafford of the Northern Premier League have found one for you.
With fans now back, gradually occupying terraces up and down the country, Trafford committee member Kevin Burke has helped devise a way that supporters can gain safe entrance to adhere to social distancing measures.
“I knew that a local company ran a local delivery service via an App, and I knew that one of the directors comes to our home games with his family, so I decided to ask if he thought they could help,” said Buke.
The idea is based on Shocal, the brainchild of Max Thorley, Ashley Washington and Lance Knight offering specific delivery slots, back in September 2019.
Shocal was set up as a rival to supermarkets and delivery giants such as Amazon and Deliveroo but focusing purely on the businesses in and around the Trafford area. Burke wanted to know if the use of an App could help to get supporters back into Shawe View. “I’ve known Ashley for a while, and I knew that his company had played a big part in keeping local businesses alive,” he added.
Burke had an added reason to ensure that Trafford maintain a safe environment for the club’s supporters having suffered from Covid-19 himself.
“Back at the beginning of March I was taken ill and spent almost a month in bed. I can assure you that I wouldn’t wish anyone to catch it, it’s a horrible thing to go through.
“With a reduced capacity set at 200 supporters for Stage 1 of the reintroduction of fans into Shawe View, I decided to ask Ashley if he thought his company could help us sell our tickets in a safe and secure manner. As a local football club, he said we are exactly what his company are about, and he immediately set about getting Shocal being able to allow the purchase of tickets.
“Once the App had been amended to allow the sale of tickets we decided to make 150 available via that medium and kept 50 back for sale at the gate, which were on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.”
The 150 tickets for the game against Ashton Athletic were quickly snapped up via the App.
Burke added: “The App can, and will, help NonLeague clubs maintain a safe and secure entry into the ground. It provides us with all the ‘track and trace’ information and we will certainly continue to use the App going forward.”