During the coming months, there will be much work behind-the-scenes going on at Coventry City as we prepare for the 2022/23 campaign.
We will be working to keep supporters up to date of this work too, so you are fully aware of how this work will affect you and the reasoning behind it.
Coventry City Chief Executive Dave Boddy has provided the following update around ticketing:
Season Tickets
We are very pleased with the sales so far, with around 4000 Season Tickets now being sold.
I’d like to take this chance to remind fans of the key dates coming up
21/22 seats held until: Tuesday 19th April at 5:30pm
Early Bird ends: Monday 25th April at Midnight
All fans will receive a new Season Ticket card in the post ahead of the start of the new season, and we will update supporters once dispatch/arrival dates for these are confirmed.
Away Ticket sales/allocations
Our demand for away tickets is higher than the allocations that we are receiving at a number of games. 10 of our 21 games we have sold so far this season has sold out, which is incredible.
Allocations in the Championship are regularly around 1800 – 2000. At the same time, we have 8000 Phase 1 Season Ticket holders and over 11,500 in total.
When demand exceeds supply, this can create issues for supporters. We appreciate a number of fans who wish to attend have not been able to for this reason.
We can also understand frustration when you are trying to buy tickets online and not able to. I can reassure fans that through Ticketmaster we have a world leading system that is able to cope with the demands of Sky Blues fans, but unfortunately the issue is of the limited supply of tickets, as mentioned earlier, rather than the system.
Supporters Clubs do receive a small allocation of tickets to buy for games, as they have done since League Two. This relates directly to the Season Ticket holders they have and is part of our commitment to supporting these Clubs in what they do for their Members, but is in line with priorities and per person amount as others. Supporters Clubs take coaches etc to all away games and have done for a number of years, and are integral to our away support.
Ticket Priority Points Scheme 2022/23
We have previously mentioned that we will be bringing in a new ‘Ticket Priority Points’ scheme for the 2022/23 season. This replicates what most Clubs do at the level we are now at, and we have done work to look at how these Clubs operate their schemes and how this may work for us and our supporters.
Details are still to be finalised and full information will be confirmed during the Summer, ahead of the new season, however I am happy to be able to clarify some points for supporters now.
Points will be allocated based on purchases over the last 3 years – this will therefore include 2019/20 (pre-COVID), 2020/21 and 2021/22, as well as 2022/23.
This will take into account Season Ticket purchases, as well as home and away ticket purchases, with different point levels applied to different purchases.
Fans will need to have purchased tickets under their Supporter Numbers for this to be shown within the points system. This is why it is important that ticket purchases are assigned correctly, especially when you buy online.
For some games, the points required to purchase at different stages may vary and will be confirmed on a game-by-game basis.
Through using a three-season approach, rather than basing only on one season for example, we hope that this will prove fair to supporters and their circumstances (which we appreciate can change) and will reward commitment both home and away.
Head of Ticketing
Shelagh Brock has decided to leave the Football Club at the end of this season after a number of years of great service, most recently heading our ticketing department. We would like to thank Shelagh for her hard work and wish her the best for the future.
We have advertised for the role of Head of Ticketing, which will be a key one in this important area of the Club.
They will be responsible for the ticketing revenues and operations of the Club, and working with our ticketing partner to maximise revenues from ticketing. Crucially, they will be tasked with establishing the Club’s customer experience of the ticketing operation – from enquiry to exit from stadium – as successful and industry leading.
The new Head of Ticketing will also lead on the implementation of the new Ticket Priority Points scheme.
Ticket Office
During the summer months, fans will see additional club branding at the Ticket Office and point of sale information ready for the new season. Compared to our previous Ticket Office at the Butts Park Arena, there has been considerable improvement since our Ticket Office at the Coventry Building Society Arena opened last July and it has been widely praised by supporters, both on matchdays and non-matchdays. We will continue to improve how this area looks and feels for supporters, and how it operates.