Leeann Dempster has thanked supporters who queued in person or online to buy tickets to support the team in the forthcoming Cup match against Hearts at Tynecastle.
While every effort has been made to ensure tickets were made available to those supporters who enjoy priority for away match tickets – Away Season Ticket Holders and Season Ticket Holders – inevitably many have been left disappointed due to the enormous demand for this fixture.
Club staff, in particular ticket office staff, worked hard to cope with the high demand.
The tickets were split equally between online/phone and the ticket office in an effort to ensure all supporters were given as equal a chance as possible. Those online sold out quickly. Ticketmaster had 60 people briefed and on call to deal with calls.
People began queuing overnight for the tickets which went on sale via the ticket office. When the queue reached a point where the number queuing exceeded the number of tickets available from the Ticket Office a voucher system was used, to ensure supporters did not waste hours of their time queuing with no possibility of getting a ticket.
Chief Executive Leeann Dempster said: “I’d like to thank everyone who continued to show their support for the Club, and I’m sorry that we simply aren’t able to take everyone with us.
“Whenever demand far outstrips supply, as in this case, there will be those who feel disappointed and sometimes angry. I understand that, people who love and support the Club want to be at the match.
“However, despite our best efforts we simply aren’t able to meet everyone’s wishes on this.
“We know that the high numbers unable to obtain a ticket has again opened conversation around a loyalty points scheme. This has also been raised with the Club by both supporter directors, Frank and Amit.
“On Loyalty Points I would say this: similar high numbers would have been disappointed. There may have been some differences in who got the tickets, but thousands of supporters would still have been left disappointed.
“When the decision was taken to scrap our loyalty points scheme last year, it followed months of debate and discussion with supporters and working groups. There were good reasons, and for those keen to revisit these there are links below for more information.
“Suffice to say that we are aware the issue has resurfaced, we have no immediate plans to reintroduce it, but we are open-minded on the issue going forward and are content to have a conversation with supporters around this.
“Finally, thank you again to everyone for your continued support – it is much appreciated.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
