With preparations behind the scenes designed to consider every possibility when it comes to welcoming fans back to Brunton Park, we wondered if the season ticket option is going to be the best course of action to take for fans who want to secure a place at our home games.
Speaking this week, chief executive Nigel Clibbens said: “This is where people’s personal situations are key. We know how tough it is as a club getting through this, and we’ve all got friends and family who are finding things difficult as well.
“As we’ve said, we want to try to do right by our fans and we know some of them are not going to necessarily find it easy to buy tickets. That’s why we need a balanced view on what we price, and how we make it attractive for people.
“I think if fans want to come to games, the most certain way they’re going to get in is to have a season ticket. The guidance that’s coming out from the safety authorities is that there won’t be any walk-up ticket purchasing on the day of a game.
“That’s because of the tracing and tracking the club is going to have to do, so that method of buying tickets won’t be available. We might be able to sell individual tickets up to late on, but that could only be up until Friday, because we have to then allocate seats.
“That also means going into the stands and putting crosses and ticks on seats in order to meet the social distancing guidelines.”
“For fans who are used to being able to decide late on the day or in the week that they want to watch football, it could be difficult for them. The flexibility and ability to cater for quick decisions will be taken away until we get back to normal, whenever that may be.”
“What I will say is that the patience that’s being shown by our fans through all of this is really good,” he commented. “I know in the past that the club has been criticised and we’ve made mistakes with the fans, but we’ve tried to do the right things even though it has been difficult.
“The response we’ve got from the fans is great and we’re really grateful for that. The fact they were patient with the return of refunds and then, when push came to shove, they donated the money back anyway is magnificent. And that’s even when times are probably tough at home.
“You can’t take that for granted and it shows what we’ve actually got here. It shows the potential that’s maybe unlocked and ready to burst out. I think that’s really good and it makes us all motivated at the club to do whatever we can to make that better and grow.”
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