COVENTRY CITY ‘THINKS PREMIERSHIP’ IN NEW ACCESS SOLUTION
There are signs around the Ricoh Stadium urging staff and players to ‘Think Premiership’, and that is exactly what Ken Sharp, Marketing Director for Coventry City Football Club has done in the Club’s new access and ticketing solution.
Handshake technology from APT SkiData has now been installed to help further improve ticket sales, speed the entry of fans through the turnstiles, cut down on fraud relating to concessionary tickets, and build a closer relationship with the fans to help add greater value to their membership.
“We chose APT SkiData because of its overall value proposition,” Ken says. “It has a reputation around the world for the reliability and flexibility of its technology, and we were able to agree a price and terms that were agreeable, paying for the system over a three-year period.”
Coventry City moved to the Ricoh Stadium from Highfield Road in the Summer of 2005 as the principal tenant in the magnificent new complex leased to them by the local council. In making the move, it also took the opportunity of radically overhauling its approach to managing ticket sales as Ken explains:
“Season tickets are the foundation of funding at any football club,” he says, “and we wanted a way of improving both season ticket and general ticket sales. It is generally acknowledged that the easier it is for our fans to buy a ticket, the more they will purchase, and so we will soon have five different methods (on-line, via the ticket office, via Automated Telephone Service (ATS), print-at-home, and Flexicard) all built on the backbone of the new automated entry technology from APT SkiData.”
Fundamentally, the new technology is based around an electronic card and access system, integrated with the existing ticketing provider Software4Sport. Instead of the old-fashioned matchbooks, where the holder has to find and tear out the relevant ticket for each game, season ticket holders are now issued with an Electronic Season Ticket Card that stores their details and automatically verifies authenticity and grants them access to the ground. What’s more, being electronic, each card can simply be re-activated year-on-year at the point of renewal rather than having to print off and send a new book of tickets (saving both time and money).
By linking the card back to the Club’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) package, Ken and his team can have a clear picture of what games their fans come to, what time they come in etc, and with a desire to move towards cashless vending in the future, they will soon be able to track their spending habits through the club shop. “Using the APT SkiData technology we can build a much closer relationship with our customers,” Ken says, “and create a series of benefits around it.”
Currently Coventry City has around 10,000 season ticket holders; there were only 6,000 at Highfield Road so already the situation is improving. With the help of APT SkiData, Ken hopes to increase this figure to around 12,500. The ground has a capacity of 32,500, and an average gate of 20,500.
One of the ways Ken is making it easier for fans to buy a season ticket is by introducing monthly payments. Although take-up has been initially slow, the ‘early adopters’ are clearly spreading the word. “The comfort of a monthly payment, rather than trying to find a lump sum all in one go, is a message that is slowly getting out there,” he says.
Those that miss a payment are denied access at the turnstile. Their cards are blacklisted, such that when they are presented they are greeted with a message ‘see ticket office’. Payment is then almost immediately forthcoming.
But it is not just the season ticket (or rather card) holders who benefit from the new technology. The flexibility of the system is such that the readers at the 45 turnstiles where the technology has been retrofitted can also read printed match-day tickets. Visitors simply insert their barcoded ticket or wave their contactless card in front of the reader, and access is given. It is quicker, safer, and if there is a problem, a red light will flash, and a display will tell the visitor whether they have an invalid ticket, or whether they are at the wrong turnstile. Whatever happens, if there is a problem the stewards are on hand to deal with it.
For VIPs, staff use hand-held terminals to verify the authenticity of the visitor, and allow them access to the ground and its facilities, including the appropriate members’ lounges.
The control afforded by the new APT SkiData technology is a key benefit, especially in overcoming the issue of how to manage concession tickets - one of the biggest headaches facing Clubs today. “Nearly 4,000 of our 10,000 Season tickets are concession tickets – 50% of the price of a full ticket – so it is important that they are only issued, and only used, by those entitled to them,” Ken says.
“With the APT SkiData technology, as soon as a concession ticket is presented to the reader, a light will flash, alerting the steward. He can then see whether the fan looks like they should be in possession of such a concession or not (ie an adult entering on a child’s ticket), and if need be deny them access.”
The technology is also enabling Coventry City to find innovative ways of attracting new members. Its new Flexicard, for example, is a member’s card that enables the cardholder to purchase tickets for individual games at a discount. The card is validated for that game such that he can enter the ground without difficulty. Shortly, fans will have the option of being able to print out their tickets at home, and the Club is also looking at the possibilities offered by barcodes sent to mobile phones as a ‘virtual’ ticket. There is also a further possibility of integrating the cards with the barriers at the car parks, which also feature technology from APT SkiData.
The investment made by Coventry City in the new technology is substantial, especially considering it does not own the Stadium in which it plays. “We are only a tenant, so the fact that we are prepared to make this sort of investment for something we do not own, says a great deal about how important we think it is,” Ken concludes. “It would be like hiring a car from Hertz, and then sticking in a Satellite Navigation system at your own expense. It is a bold move, but one that is essential for building our future revenue streams.
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