Lincoln City CEO Liam Scully has apologised to supporters missing out on our trip to Middlesbrough, saying the club are not ‘too proud’ to review the structures in place.
Tickets for the first Championship game went on sale last week, with a number of supporters experiencing problems. The website seemingly crashed for some users, while others were able to access tickets before the 10 am release time.
It has led to calls for a points system going forward, and while Liam stopped short of promising change, he did admit the club were always open to reviewing procedures to see what might be done a little better.
In an interview on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, he explained what caused the issues people experienced last week.
“In simplistic terms, looking at the regulations within the EFL, a minimum of 2,000 tickets or 10 per cent of capacity has to be awarded. Let us be really honest: we will be awarding 10 per cent of tickets to away fans this year because our stadium model does not hit the capacity to give us that.
“Equally, for other teams in the Championship, it has become custom and practice to offer the operational minimum. That is 2,000 fans for most clubs and most stadiums.
“We had 6,000 fans logging in on the first day trying to get those 2,000 tickets. It is not nice to disappoint such a large proportion of your fanbase.
“We are due to have future conversations with the Fan Advisory Board. We will take an honest assessment and review whether there are different ways, technologies and things that we can implement to make it feel fairer.”
Some believe a points system would be fairer, others a ballot, but as Liam explained, the club remains open-minded and will be reviewing feedback.
“We have to be open-minded. We cannot be too proud to review the structures we have in place. We have to take feedback from the fans and look at what we can do better. That is exactly what we will be doing over the next few weeks, having had the experience of Middlesbrough away. I am sure there are other games that will do that as well.”
One thing Liam was keen to do was apologise to supporters who have missed out on a ticket for the Imps’ first second-tier game in over 60 years, promising a review.
“For what it is worth, I am really sorry to the people we have disappointed. I promise you we are not being glib about this. We will review the systems.
“Ultimately, if we have 6,000 or more than 7,000 people trying to get their hands on 2,000 tickets, the numbers are not in our favour in those scenarios.”
It will be an absolute nightmare for any solution. Last year due to not being able to get tickets for Stevenage or Port Vale I was gutted. I am an exiled Imps and fortunately I did manage to get to Northampton, Barnsley (cup), Wigan, Exeter & Huddersfield tickets for the away games last season but just in case for this season I have purchased a bronze membership in the vain hope of maybe getting a ticket for the odd away game. I didn’t get Middlesbrough and feel sorry for those that go week in week out that also missed out. However how is a points system helpful especially to the exiled Imps? It would mean I would never get to see the Imps due to as stated being in exile and not able to come to home games. Is a ballot also fair? Some again would miss out who have gold membership. I don’t have the answer but also believe Ticketmaster must have been at fault also. Showing tickets were still available as you could then continue on their site to the part where it asked where in the ground you wanted to be in, only for it to constantly state 0 tickets available!!! Anyway, best wishes to everyone and UTI.
Completely agree! As another Imp in exile, I no longer have any hope that I might get to see us play in an away stadium, despite also having a Bronze membership. I reckon it’s gonna be hard enough getting home tickets at this rate! UTI.