We’re very pleased to be able provide information of our new match night entry to Hexagon Telford Tigers home games for the new season. We’ve been working with ice rink management to improve the overall match night experience for our fans and are grateful for the support in helping us to make these improvements. We think it’s very important for fans to be aware of some of the major issues we have experienced in the past couple of years which have prompted us to make the necessary changes now. We have lost significant amounts of much needed revenue from individuals who go to extraordinary lengths to gain access to games without actually paying for their tickets. This financially damages the club and is profoundly unfair on all of our honest paying fans. It’s often been very difficult for the club volunteers to clear the building and make preparations for the game and this new system also complements the works the ice rink will be undertaking to improve the ice rink reception area.
We recently held a match night volunteers meeting and we’re very pleased with the feedback we received. The match night volunteers are responsible for the off-ice presentation of a Hexagon Telford Tigers game from managing fan entry, checking tickets, sales of merchandise, stewarding plus many other responsibilities. The change should improve the flow of fans into the building with less congestion in the reception area of the ice rink where previously people would wait when paying/collecting tickets and queuing for the doors to open.
With the new system fans can pay and collect tickets as normal then head inside where tickets will be checked at an alternative point, meaning we will be able to bring fans off the street much sooner, getting people out of the cold and rain, into specific queues for sponsors/season ticket holders and also a queue for general ticket sales located behind boot hire. We will have a steward and barriers preventing the public from entering through to the ice rink by the café and boot hire which will remain in place until the game is underway, this cordon will then relocate to the doors inside the ice rink reception to check tickets of any late arrivals . This cordon will remain in place until the end of the game. Please be advised that until the end of the first period we will not provide any pass outs, anyone wishing to leave the building will be required to pay for re-entry on their return prior to the end of the period. After the end of the first period we will provide a pass out which must be produced on return.
The ice rink staff will clear the building after public skating or junior game, we have introduced a 30 minute window to do this allowing staff and volunteers time to set up. All public, junior hockey players and their parents will be required to leave the building and nobody will be permitted in the café or rink hall prior to the doors opening.
Fans will then be allowed to enter the ice rink hall at the normal entry time, 45 minutes prior to face off and enjoy the evening.
There will be no access via the back door going forwards, all entry will be via the ice rink front entrance.
