Fans should note that the club will not be operating cash turnstiles this coming season.

For HOME fans, tickets should be purchased from the ticket office before proceeding to the Turnstiles....for both Cash & Card Sales.  Additional ticketing windows will operate to improve upon the effectiveness of this system when it has been used previously, but it still requires fans to arrive at the ground in good time to ensure access to the ground before kick-off.  No matter the system, if everyone shows up 10 minutes before the game is due to start then we'll never get everyone in on time.

Where possible, fans should purchase tickets in advance.  This can be done online at https://www.eticketing.co.uk/ictfc/ or by phone on 0844 847 1888 (both available 24 hours per day).

Obviously with cup matches there is an increased number of ticket purchases involved....please keep that in mind and allow a little more time than you might for a league match.

The Turnstiles on the West side of the ground will not be in operation for this weekend's match via Dundee Utd.

For any AWAY fans visiting the forum....Cash sales will take place from the KIOSK located at the end of the South Stand.  Card sales need to be done at the Ticket Office located at the front of the Main Stand.

16 minutes ago, RiG said:

So home and away fans will be in the same queue for card payments?

Correct, but that queue will be dedicated for Card Payments, unlike in the past when it has also dealt with Cash Payments.  Also the flexibility for other windows to assist if needed...e.g. If Collections/Queries is quiet, then they can take Card Payment Sales if needs be.  Also, the Collections/Queries desk will be handed any situations which might otherwise hold up the queue, allowing it to continue serving everyone else.

2 hours ago, Gringo said:

2 x cash ticket windows for, say, 1500 fans. Aye, that'll work a treat. I also suspect not many would heed the advice about turning up earlier. Tomorrow's game will not be a big test of this system I don't think. Time will tell of course but it's a wrong move for me. It could also deter the tourist from popping down for a game.

The thing I'd like to know is, it I bought a ticket in advance and couldn't make the game through no fault of own I.e travel disruption, would I get a refund?

That's twice as many cash points as we've previously operated.

In regards to refunds.  If the tickets are back with the club BEFORE the match takes place, then you would get a refund.

This is really no different from the arrangements that operate at most entertainment venues or visitor attraction of any size.  If you have bought a ticket before you simply go to the entrance.  If you haven't, you go to the ticket office and then go to the entrance when you have your ticket.  The general principle is correct but the issue is whether infrastructure designed for a different system will be adaptable enough to cope with what, in principle should be a better system.  If it doesn't then the club will need to consider investment to change it.

In this day and age, the traditional football turnstile operated by someone in a booth does seem very dated. Electronic systems may require a level of investment but they allow for far quicker flow of people and save on staffing costs.  So let's give the new arrangement the chance to bed in.  If it doesn't work it will give us the opportunity to look at more innovative ways of getting crowds into the ground than the current archaic system.

4 hours ago, Gringo said:

2 x cash ticket windows for, say, 1500 fans. Aye, that'll work a treat. I also suspect not many would heed the advice about turning up earlier. Tomorrow's game will not be a big test of this system I don't think. Time will tell of course but it's a wrong move for me. It could also deter the tourist from popping down for a game.

The thing I'd like to know is, it I bought a ticket in advance and couldn't make the game through no fault of own I.e travel disruption, would I get a refund?

Is this not the system used widely on the railways? Buy your ticket at the ticket office and then board the train?

I'm sorry.........I don't want to be negative as we face , yet another, new dawn........but I have to agree..............I smell trouble. We do not have a good record when it comes to organisation around the stadium; whether it is the stewarding, the car-parking or the club shop. I fear the worst. We are supposed to be providing an attractive product for the customer...............a customer who has many alternatives these days. It MUST be hassle free. Whlist I am aware that the club is not run for my benefit...this could be another nail in the coffin for home visits from me. The A9 is scheduled to be pretty much a no go area for the foreseeable; After a 3 to 4 hour drive I like a pint with my mates in the Innes.........I don't wish to head straight for the end of a very long queue. If this is a cost saving exercise I fear it may back -fire. It is looking increasingly likely that, on the morning of home games, I will be getting the golf clubs or the fishing rod out.

 

G. Loomy

1 hour ago, CaleyD said:

That's twice as many cash points as we've previously operated.

In regards to refunds.  If the tickets are back with the club BEFORE the match takes place, then you would get a refund.

So i ca'nt make it due to unforeseen circumstances at the last minute how am i supposed to get my ticket back before the match takes place ?

What about the traditional way of picking tickets up from the Innes Bar and arriving 10 seconds before the kick off.

46 minutes ago, JoFrAl said:

So i ca'nt make it due to unforeseen circumstances at the last minute how am i supposed to get my ticket back before the match takes place ?

That's presumably the same question as you would ask the hotel industry who have operated a "refunds up to a certain time" policy for many bookings for a very long time.

15 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Is the procedure described all that different from the one which appears to have worked perfectly well at Ross County for some time, whereby you buy your ticket from the ticket office and then head for the turnstiles?

Que for your ticket que to get into the bar then que to get into the stadium.not what I want to be doing on my day off.

Can the actual football hurry up and start so we can moan about that instead?! This is bloody painful! first it was abbrevaitiongate, now its queuegate!

once again, mountains being badly constructed out of mole-hills. casual fans or tourists not showing up now is just a joke! nobody has said that you cant pay on the day, you just cant pay at the turnstile! erm...whats the problem here?

2 minutes ago, ictbob said:

Que for your ticket que to get into the bar then que to get into the stadium.not what I want to be doing on my day off.

and don't forget, leave 10 minutes before full time so that the tens of thousands of people can all make it home.....

3 minutes ago, ictfcsince94 said:

and don't forget, leave 10 minutes before full time so that the tens of thousands of people can all make it home.....

What about the boys on the caley club bus.will the club sell tickets to them when there queuing for there bus ticket before being stuck in the que at the longman roundabout? Doesn't shout great match day experience to me.

3 hours ago, CaleyD said:

Correct, but that queue will be dedicated for Card Payments, unlike in the past when it has also dealt with Cash Payments.  Also the flexibility for other windows to assist if needed...e.g. If Collections/Queries is quiet, then they can take Card Payment Sales if needs be.  Also, the Collections/Queries desk will be handed any situations which might otherwise hold up the queue, allowing it to continue serving everyone else.

Once thing I would suggest is maybe one night of the week, the ticket office/shop/reception desk could be open late? I get finished work at 4.30, but even at that I was struggling to get there by 5 to buy cup tickets last year.  this might make the shop less busy, as it would let people shop there outside of match days.  I appreciate there is overheads involved, but just a suggestion.

15 hours ago, Kingsmills said:

It is hard work persuading the casual fan in Inverness to venture down the Longman and I do fear that this may deter some but, as OCG says, we will just have to see how it works.

Why would this deter the casual fan. You would still have to turn up and pay before. Only thing I have concerns about is the short notice. I have only picked up on this just now and had I known sooner, would have got tickets in advance.

11 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Is this not the system used widely on the railways? Buy your ticket at the ticket office and then board the train?

No. You can board without one in certain places. I don't need to buy one of those things anyway ;-)

12 hours ago, CaleyD said:

That's twice as many cash points as we've previously operated.

In regards to refunds.  If the tickets are back with the club BEFORE the match takes place, then you would get a refund.

That should be interesting if, say, I'm stuck on a broken down train at Dalwhinnie :-D

20 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Is this not the system used widely on the railways? Buy your ticket at the ticket office and then board the train?

Yes but you can also buy your tickets online and have them posted to you (ICT do this to be fair), collect them from a fast ticket machine, buy them online and get them at a fast ticket machine or buy them online and print them off at home.

I know the club aren't flush with money but maybe they could look at one of those options to help out supporters? People want things made as easy as possible for them so small hindrance or not a number of folk will be put off by this.

I think perhaps the issue is announcing this a couple of days before the first game. It would have been in everybody's interest if this had been announced a few weeks ago so people had a chance to buy a ticket beforehand. Possibly saving large queues today and for an already overworked ticket office.

Dont really like the thought of home and away fans in the same queue also. 

13 hours ago, Gringo said:

That should be interesting if, say, I'm stuck on a broken down train at Dalwhinnie :-D

In that scenario, surely it's the train operator who is at fault for any losses you incur?  Bit unreasonable to pin blame for the state of the transport services around the country on ICTFC!!!

1 hour ago, Sir C the 3rd said:

I think perhaps the issue is announcing this a couple of days before the first game. It would have been in everybody's interest if this had been announced a few weeks ago so people had a chance to buy a ticket beforehand. Possibly saving large queues today and for an already overworked ticket office.

Dont really like the thought of home and away fans in the same queue also. 

Home and Away fans have queued together at the Ticket Office (even before the cabin was there) for as long as I can remember....can't see any reason why it would suddenly create an issue for the coming season.  For games where there may be an enhanced risk of problems, then they're aren't any matchday sales for away fans so all resources can be diverted to increased demand at the home end.

As I said earlier in the thread.....I would love to have had the chance to get the information out sooner and accept the short notice is for from what should have been done.

4 hours ago, RiG said:

Yes but you can also buy your tickets online and have them posted to you (ICT do this to be fair), collect them from a fast ticket machine, buy them online and get them at a fast ticket machine or buy them online and print them off at home.

I know the club aren't flush with money but maybe they could look at one of those options to help out supporters? People want things made as easy as possible for them so small hindrance or not a number of folk will be put off by this.

Electronic ticket entry systems are improving and getting more affordable all the time.  They were looked at for this season, but the installation and running costs just aren't quite there yet for us.....but hopefully it's not that far away.

On ‎7‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 0:28 PM, Naelifts said:

I'm sorry.........I don't want to be negative as we face , yet another, new dawn........but I have to agree..............I smell trouble. We do not have a good record when it comes to organisation around the stadium; whether it is the stewarding, the car-parking or the club shop. I fear the worst. We are supposed to be providing an attractive product for the customer...............a customer who has many alternatives these days. It MUST be hassle free. Whlist I am aware that the club is not run for my benefit...this could be another nail in the coffin for home visits from me. The A9 is scheduled to be pretty much a no go area for the foreseeable; After a 3 to 4 hour drive I like a pint with my mates in the Innes.........I don't wish to head straight for the end of a very long queue. If this is a cost saving exercise I fear it may back -fire. It is looking increasingly likely that, on the morning of home games, I will be getting the golf clubs or the fishing rod out.

 

G. Loomy

Cant see it being a cost saving thing as turnstiles will still be manned.

9 hours ago, RiG said:

Yes but you can also buy your tickets online and have them posted to you (ICT do this to be fair), collect them from a fast ticket machine, buy them online and get them at a fast ticket machine or buy them online and print them off at home.

I know the club aren't flush with money but maybe they could look at one of those options to help out supporters? People want things made as easy as possible for them so small hindrance or not a number of folk will be put off by this.

You can buy your ICT ticket online and have it posted out. Or you can phone the ticket office and have it posted out.

On ‎7‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 0:00 PM, Charles Bannerman said:

Is this not the system used widely on the railways? Buy your ticket at the ticket office and then board the train?

Don't usually get hundreds of folk arriving to buy train ticket at the same time.

Personally I only see this as being a problem for cup games and less so for league. Majority of fans are season ticket holders and, in the past, the walk ups like myself only had one cash gate to queue at and to be honest I've never had  to queue for long. There are a number of clubs, including our friends across the bridge, who don't operate cash gates and they seem to manage without problem.

On ‎7‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 1:14 PM, IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER said:

What about the traditional way of picking tickets up from the Innes Bar and arriving 10 seconds before the kick off.

All get to the Innes by one and choose a runner to nip down to stadium for tickets and hey ho

20 hours ago, CaleyD said:

Electronic ticket entry systems are improving and getting more affordable all the time.  They were looked at for this season, but the installation and running costs just aren't quite there yet for us.....but hopefully it's not that far away.

Any idea idea a simple print your own ticket at home would be to implement? I guess it would need to generate some kind of unique barcode which could be scanned at the turnstile?

On 7/22/2016 at 0:28 PM, Naelifts said:

I'm sorry.........I don't want to be negative as we face , yet another, new dawn........but I have to agree..............I smell trouble. We do not have a good record when it comes to organisation around the stadium; whether it is the stewarding, the car-parking or the club shop. I fear the worst. We are supposed to be providing an attractive product for the customer...............a customer who has many alternatives these days. It MUST be hassle free. Whlist I am aware that the club is not run for my benefit...this could be another nail in the coffin for home visits from me. The A9 is scheduled to be pretty much a no go area for the foreseeable; After a 3 to 4 hour drive I like a pint with my mates in the Innes.........I don't wish to head straight for the end of a very long queue. If this is a cost saving exercise I fear it may back -fire. It is looking increasingly likely that, on the morning of home games, I will be getting the golf clubs or the fishing rod out.

 

G. Loomy

Just let us know and your tickets will be in the Innes Bar ready for collection next to the dart board.

Much Love

x

2 hours ago, RiG said:

Any idea idea a simple print your own ticket at home would be to implement? I guess it would need to generate some kind of unique barcode which could be scanned at the turnstile?

Yup....the idea seems a very simple one.  However, all the turnstiles need to be linked to a central system to prevent the same ticket being used more than once etc.  It's that technology infrastructure and the software licensing that's expensive as you then need to implement a whole ticketing system that supports/works along with it.

Part of the challenge for smaller clubs with smaller budgets is that fully unmanned solutions are totally out of reach (at the moment) and manned systems introduce additional cost over and above the ongoing need for turnstile operators.

The only savings for the club are that cards are cheaper than ST books; and print at home (or scanning from phones) mean there's reduced ticket printing costs at the ground. Businesses usually write off the cost of new tech over so many years....so the saving in a single season would probably need to be 20-25% of the investment to justify it.  That's in purely raw terms, you still need to factor in the value of "feel good" from a more efficient system and whether, in reality, that leads to increased attendances....which is also important.

It's on the radar and the club are as keen on it as the fans because it makes life easier for everyone....they just need the figures to fall into line.