Turnstile Entry at Valencia

Supporters will be aware that there were queues and delays getting into the stadium for our game against Valencia on Sunday.

While we had installed a new automated entry system and this was the first time it was in use, the delays were not due to any technical errors with the system. Rather the unfamiliarity of using the system and the fact that we had attend a lot of people who do not come to games regularly, meant that many tickets were not presented so as to allow a smooth entry.

Around 700 tickets were double scanned rendering them invalid and this had a knock-on effect on the queue. Also, many supporters weren’t pushing the turnstile as well so the system timed out.

The system was also new to staff and while there was pre-matchday training, the live experience is different and when the situation becomes quickly pressurised as it did on Sunday, the experience is difficult for both staff and supporters.

Once the issues were identified, we were able to work the queues to advise people how to present their ticket and to make sure they pushed through the turnstile. The flow rate reports show that this had an impact on speeding up entry and we were also able to utilise hand held scanners once released from other areas to allow access through the corner gates.

So while the system worked, the process needed some attention and therefore in advance of this Sunday’s game we have made the following changes:

- For this game, and our first home game against Watford, the turnstiles will open one and a half hours before kick-off, so at 6pm on Sunday, to spread the access flow and supporters attending are again urged to make sure they plan to arrive and enter the ground in good time.

- We will clearly mark on the system where the ticket needs to be placed.

- We have changed the on-screen message to reflect the full access time for the turnstile i.e. the green “Enter” will be on the screen for longer so panic doesn’t set in when it disappears.

- Wednesday’s awful weather rained off the production of a “How to” video guide showing how to present both a paper ticket and a season ticket card at the turnstile and gain easy entry so this was rescheduled and will now be available to view on the club's website ahead of the weekend's match. As a note, season tickets are contactless so this will be a quicker activation.

- Posters have been produced and will be outside and over the turnstile screens to demonstrate how to gain easy access through the turnstile. To view the poster, please click here.

- A dedicated member of staff will be on hand to resolve issues as far as possible without supporters having to go to the ticket office. If the problem is one that needs to be dealt with by ticket office staff, we will have a dedicated window for these queries. If you have difficulties at the turnstile, please leave the turnstile and make a member of staff aware.

- We will email those people who have purchased tickets to reiterate the above and hope that these measures will make for quicker access on Sunday and going forwards. In the meantime, we regret that many supporters queued for much longer than any of us would have anticipated.

- Bag searching is a regular process at Vitality Stadium and bag tagging has been in place in areas of the ground since the latter part of last season. Search and tag will continue and supporters are asked to be prepared for this and again to make sure they arrive in good time.

On Sale Wednesday

While the issues that had occurred with the previous two on-sales do appear to have been fixed, there was a short failure when tickets went on sale yesterday.

Online sales was fine but desktop sales, those taken in person and on the phone, would not allow the processing of the payment. The service was successfully resumed within 20 minutes, but as it happened at 9am, it was the worst time for it to occur. Orders were taken and all supporters affected were contacted to take payment.

On a separate issue, we have been made aware of a small number of supporters who experienced an issue with pending transactions. These occur when the card holder billing address entered by the supporter does not exactly match the address held by the card provider.

There is a visual prompt on the booking site which advises not to click this button more than once as this will send multiple requests for payment which leads to the pending transactions. We introduced this extra level of security in February to prevent organised fraudulent activity.

We will talk to our payment processor to see if we can find a way that maintains a high level of security while reducing the incidence of repeat payment requests.

AudienceView

Our relationship with our ticketing supplier is a long one. The company was very supportive when the club was going through difficult times and their recently appointed management team has been keen to raise the level of the relationship.

The provision of the upgrade to version 7 was part of this vision but the upgrade has flaws which unfortunately have become apparent to all of us over the last few weeks.

AudienceView has taken full ownership for the recent technical issues and everyone involved there is working urgently towards a consistent and stable ticket purchase experience for our supporters.

The club will support AudienceView with this process as our focus is to resolve the immediate issues. We can then turn our attention to ensuring our future ticketing service meets the standards both club and supporters require.

Junior Cherries Open Training Session

Happening on Wednesday 9th August, we already have lots of registrations for the event. We will send out more information on what is happening on the day over the weekend so Junior Cherries should look out for an email in their Inbox.