No turnstiles open Sunday. 3 gates open for entry.

Yep, heard this in the shop this morning, although think they said just two gates with 2 stewards with hand held scanners on each.

can't they do it like on the buses now with those QR codes?

They are doing, Season tickets and all tickets now have QR codes on them

they can be read off a phone though so no need to have a piece of paper

Yeah, if you buy your tickets online, they send you an e-ticket with the QR code on it

I did this for the first time on Sunday (didn't attend Boxing Day). I have one or two points about it:

1. I went with 4 tickets. 3 tickets on 1 E-Mail and another ticket on a separate E-Mail due to my little sister wanting to come after we'd already booked. As there was no turnstiles (only the big green gate with 2 stewards on) it helped me personally as I didn't have to stand there and flick through 2 different emails and wait for them to be scanned. Instead the steward glanced at my email and just let me in. So for me it was quick and efficient as I have grown up with technology and it's second nature for me to use and can quickly open documents (like the tickets) however and older person doing this might struggle and might cause queue times to be longer so I do think a physical ticket would be better for those not clued on with technology to improve efficiency and fan preference. There should be at least 2 pay on the gate turnstiles for me. And at least have it as an option. Even if the club edges more people to buy online.

2. I can't speak for anyone else but the stewards didn't actually scan my E-Ticket. With that being said couldn't I just get a friend to E-Mail me his ticket and use that to get in? I mean how will they know if a ticket is being re-used if they aren't scanning them? I won't do this like but I feel like the club could face this problem in the future.

They didn't scan mine either. Someone else could have easily gained entry with a photocopy of my ticket.

One thing someone told me was that there was a very slow queue in the shop as a lot of people turned up on the day without tickets. Obviously some came on a whim and some hadn't know there were no turnstiles open. Anyway the queue was slow as two members of staff were dealing with ticket sales, season ticket collection and merchandise all at once. I was told that a few decided not to bother when they saw the queue.

Not sure this is the result the club wants.

Clearly not

And the whole 'not scanning the e-tickets' thing is an open invitation to people to ..ummm... 'game' the system for their own nefarious purposes.

Even though the majority won't, you only need a few that will for the whole system to end up costing the club a lot of money. In fact it could (will?) cost the club far more than whatever is saved by not opening up a couple of cash turnstiles.

I'm still struggling to understand why the club thinks its a good idea not to have cash turnstiles. No matter how much they push people to buy in advance online (and I'm not against that at all), there WILL still be quite a few people who don't know to do that, or simply don't want to. If those people end up being lost to the supporter base then it is surely counter-productive.

Just open a couple of cash turnstiles. Problem solved.

Your second point is quite worrying really. You're exactly right, one person could have bought a ticket and forwarded that e-mail (or even screenshotted and sent the picture) to 20 people. The stewards would have only started twigging on when they had been told 200 tickets had been sold, yet 1,000 people had so far come in with QR codes.

It suggests that this is the system they want to use going forward, but it's not actually working yet. Hence why the late change they did of not opening turnstiles and having a couple of gates with stewards on (The one where they made out it was for safety reasons, but quite clearly it was for something else, since Rooley Lane is never closed these days).

Once it is all working, one question I have (which I'll be able to answer when I buy tickets for Toronto game I suppose), is what happens if I buy two tickets for myself and my pal (as I do regularly), but I want them separate? I usually get his ticket and give him it at work. But on gameday, we travel to the game separately and then meet up in the ground. So me having both tickets on my phone isn't going to work (assuming I even have my new smartphone by that point). Do I need physical tickets? Or do I forward the mail on to him and we both use the same QR code, which allows 2 people to use it?

I think the club could do with some kind of FAQ on all these kind of things on the website so that people understand what they're doing, rather than potentially being put off by some convoluted system designed to save a bit of money on turnstile staff.

This is something I predicted. I forget if I did it here or on another forum, but it's exactly what I expected would happen. I've been in that shop on gameday (usually to get away tickets for the next game) and the speed of getting served is shocking. Not a knock on the ladies behind the counter, but they can only do it as quick as the system lets them and if a lot of people are there, it gets very crammed. I've certainly given up before so it doesn't surprise me that others do.

Bit better signage would do it.

People go in to the shop out of habit I suspect. To the left of it there was a ticket office open specifically for walkups. I only went there cos there happened to be a queue when I arrived. I only noticed the sign for it after I'd paid there. Unless people were going in the shop to deal with multiple things at once, which seems likely in the early games of the season.

fwiw, tickets from there were like the ones they used to hand you after paying to get in at the turnstile. No QR code.

This is why I'd at least open 2 cash only turnstiles. That way only having 2 open may encourage people to buy online or in store through the week as there will inevitably be queues to pay and buying online would avoid that. But at least it gives people who can't access tickets online the chance to pay on the gate on the day. If that makes sense?



If it helps, the e-tickets come in separate attachments on your email. I did this with my sister. I had all 4 tickets for my group but emailed my sister her ticket so she could get in and meet her friends in the ground beforehand. So all it means is that if you and your friend have a smartphone, there's no need for you to drop it off. Just simply e-mail their ticket to them.

That does help, thanks. I could just forward him one of those attachments and make sure I use the other one.

I can see those less technologically minded to struggle with this system a lot. We have a lot of "aging" supporters, I can't see them being very happy. Hopefully most will have season tickets so they have it on a card (or whatever method the season ticket is now).

You're welcome

And yeah just forward him the ticket. Tbf if they aren't scanning them you could use the same one haha!

And yes I agree. Those who aren't familiar with technology may struggle. I just hope they already do have a season ticket (it's been a card for a while now I think, since 2010 at least) and I hope the club opens up a turnstile for those who haven't so we don't lose them and try to get as many people in as possible.

A lot of the potential issues could be solved easily by a simple FAQ section of the website on the new ticketing.

They can alert people to where this ticket office that VBFG mentioned is, they can let people know that they come as separate e-mail attachments for multiple tickets etc etc. There seems to be a lot of issues and questions around it, which could be solved by good communication. Get ahead of it and answer questions for a large amount of fans before they turn up to the ground and wonder what the hell is going on.

Oh wait, communication. There's that word that seems to come up a lot.

To be fair, they have mentioned it on the website and social media a bit, but there just needs to be a bit more to pad out the basics. And what happens on game day needs to mirror what they've said, which it sounds like hasn't happened yet.

But its precisely the people that aren't going to be on social media or the website that are probably also going to end up befuddled by e-tickets and ticket scanners.

You're right in reference to 'ageing' supports. Around where I sit are hordes. I'm 58 and I'm like a spring chicken amongst people who are clearly struggling to get up the steps in the main stand. How many of them want to be messing around with e-tickets? Some of them have probably been paying at the gate since the club reformed in 1963 - what is benefit in alienating them now, just when we need their support more than ever??

One of my family members bought a ticket on the day. He's a season ticket holder and he didn't pay the extra fiver in the shop as he argued the fact that he works away so could not purchase a ticket at the store, and didn't have a smartphone (he does but was arguing it for this case) and that as a season ticket holder he was not e-mailed about the changes in price on the day (not sure how true this is maybe you season ticket holders can enlighten me on this) to which the guy at the ticket office basically said that's a fair argument.

Fair point. I'm not sure how you get round this other than going back to a cash turnstile or physical tickets (and better signage for the walk ups).

I got a mail from the club but it just gave me a link to the website so I'm not sure how much that would have helped anyway.

As for the ticket checking using phones, my experience on Sunday wasn't particularly good. My plastic card was scanned by a guy with a phone but it took him ages of moving his phone backwards and forwards to get it to 'ping'. This system may work with the relatively low crowds in the friendlies but I can see problems with the league games, given that most fans will tend to turn up at the last minute - after all, it shouldn't take any time at all to get a mere 2.5 thousand (ish) into the ground should it?

When it comes to scanning the hundreds of home printed tickets I can only see it being worse, unless they really do intend just let folk wave them at the stewards. #actionfraud

It wouldn't be so bad if they turned the turnstiles into automatic scanners like they have at Headingley. Imagine if even 10% of the turnstiles at Odsal were turned into scanners for this season and maybe next where the crowds won't be huge then every year add a couple more. It would allow those who can, to use them. And those who aren't sure can use the stewards. A bit like how some people are quick as hell using self service checkouts but others prefer to use a checkout with someone on it.

I don't think season tickets should be scanned yet, to reduce the queue times. Just shown at the gate. Each season ticket is paid for and every season ticket represents 1 person at every home game. Even if a season ticket holder doesn't attend and gives it to a friend etc technically that 'supporter allocation' is paid for anyway. So no need to make everyone scan.

In fact in an ideal world the scanners idea could be for season ticket holders only for the first season (as a trial) and the gate used by individual game tickets (like myself).

If the club were selling 'proper' paper tickets I'd agree 100%, but, unless they could be scanned and be shown to be single use, home printed tickets would be a big no-no to me. The potential for fraud is just too great and it wouldn't need more than a few abused tickets to make the cost of a couple of gatemen seem an absolute bargain. Incidentally, I think the story about "safety reasons" being behind the decision to not open a turnstile is the biggest load of 'fake news' Ive heard for some time.

I would reasonably bet that the lack of cash turnstile is only for the friendlies as they want to minimise the costs of opening and operating odsal.

I fully expect cash turnstiles to be open again (probably not many mind!) when the season kicks off proper. What business would turn away cash paying customers after all.... I expect the price hike to stay aswell.

Indeed. I was talking to a mate who's a walk up punter and he said he'd not bother at all if he has to queue up in the shop for a ticket.

So a cash turnstile is a must.

They probably only have to flog two or three walk up entries or so to pay for the costs of opening a couple of turnstiles. Not opening pay on the gate turnstiles is a false economy, all you're going to do is p!ss people off by making them queue. If they aren't put off going altogether, that is. It's an incredibly bad bit of business.