The DERRY

[BCram]

Obviously I don't have the answers BC, I only know what I've seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, unfortunately I've banged my head against enough walls but there are some posters on here that simply won't believe me. I've no reason to disbelieve anything I've seen or heard and from what I know I would highly doubt the police and licensing authority would ever sanction the return of a cash turnstile at the SE.

I queued for a ticket at the club shop for an additional juvenile I was taking along to the recent St. Johnstone debacle and have to say that some of what you're saying is not correct.

Firstly there was one clearly marked separate desk with its own queue for pre paid ticket collection and there were two for on the day 'PATG' purchases. I joined the PATG queue outside the shop and made a point of timing myself from joining it to leaving the shop, it was just over 2 minutes. Is 2 minutes really that much? I was certainly pleasantly surprised at how quick and efficient it was after reading how much people are complaining about it and how it's reducing our attendances. People going to the pre paid collection point basically went in, picked up tickets and left without any kind of queue. I'd expect that when that desk is free they would sell to the PATG queue from there too.

Secondly the restriction on the SE isn't that you have to have a ticket for a designated seat but that the ticket has to be bought in advance of the game and presented at the turnstile to gain admission. The only places the club can currently facilitate this are online and the club shop. The idea of handing cash over at the turnstile is a non starter whether being issued a ticket for a designated seat or not.

I personally don't know why the club can't provide a printable ticket by email or download that can be presented at the turnstile when you buy online. Surely this would address part of the issue at the SE, at least for those that can buy in advance online? Having said that some people would find fault with that system somehow or other. Another alternative is to construct a second office at the gates at the bottom of the old stairway. Wouldn't need much - a secure entry, laptop, ticket printer and couple of volunteers to man it. Probably wouldn't take too much to convert some of the old turnstiles for this purpose. Make it the only place you can get SE PATG tickets but obviously would still require the dreaded second queue and therefore some would still whinge.

Thanks for the reply. Obviously if my experience had been the same as yours i would not have bothered to post about it but I joined the queue almost at the junction where Sandeman Street meets the Provie road and it took 20 minutes to get served. There must have been a much bigger PATG attendance. I also thought that you could PATG for the Main Stand. I have been going to the bobby cox for more recent games but I am sure that i have handed cash over for entry into the Main Stand - perhaps this facility has been stopped?

I know that the rules have been tightened up but there might be merit in trying to see if a PATG turnstile could be added for the SE. If you don't ask you will not be able to make such a change and what harm would it do to at least try? We are not going to provoke a closure response from the authorities surely if we merely ask for a PATG turnstile for the SE and we ensure that the number of tickets that can be sold will be limited to our safely certificate. If the concern is that this will create a significant increase in the numbers using the SE then for me it seems like we should be trying to do something to try to restore these fans to the SE.

I'm with you in the futility of having a kiosk type ticket selling stall and then making the purchaser join a second queue.