closing the shutters on fans who have queued for 6 hours.

Utterly appalling behaviour.

On the flip side they are mostly volunteers working there? Not saying it couldn’t have been planned better (I don’t know the detail) but I guess when the club rely on volunteers most of the time it’s impossible to ramp things up at short notice for events like this.

rncfc wrote: January 18th, 2024, 7:10 pm closing the shutters on fans who have queued for 6 hours.

Utterly appalling behaviour.

This club is no longer 'our club'. It will soon be 'their club'. **** all of you that voted for it.

Kids crying, OAPs shivering, all going home ticketless. The excuse I was given was they'd had a long day, yeah, us too mate.

I genuinely don't even want to go after that. **** you Newport County.

Richard Haines.

I queued for 6 hours from 12pm and got my ticket. I and the people around me were shocked that they were still allowing people to join the queue after 4pm. It was not good (Even though I got my ticket) it was freezing, painfully slow and there were no chairs for the elderly. Had I known I was going to be there for 6 hours I wouldn’t have waited but once you are 3 hours in you are committed. I didn’t know they had pulled the shutters down at 7 but I knew it was the time they had said they would close.
It wasn’t at all well organised, no stewards or club representatives keeping people informed.

There was 200 in the queue behind me who never had a hope in hell of being served, so why make them wait for 4 hours in the cold?

Why are season ticket holders managing to get their hands on 6 tickets at a time?

Anyone at the club care to comment, as there are long term fans at risk of missing this game due to their continued ineptitude.

Oh Dear! Sorry to hear this. I don't know if it can be done but let's extend the hours tomorrow and not have a repeat of this problem.
It would be a great pity if the potential to expand support for County was turned into a means to put people off the club.

G Guest wrote: January 18th, 2024, 7:41 pm Oh Dear! Sorry to hear this. I don't know if it can be done but let's extend the hours tomorrow and not have a repeat of this problem.
It would be a great pity if the potential to expand support for County was turned into a means to put people off the club.

I was next in the queue. I wonder where in the queue I'll be if I rejoin it tomorrow?

I can't take another day of work to queue again, so it's unlikely I'll be going now. A situation poorly handled, administered, and no people skills on display whatsoever.

36 years I've been going. The way I feel right now, this might be the last.

I notive The Pod have managed to land 100 tickets. So pleased for them.

If you have a season ticket and an email address you will be able to get your reserved seat, plus an additional ticket, from your settee.

The 2400 odd season ticket holders could, and can still, have had done that from their warm house at 10am this morning and confirmation received by 10.05am.

This in turn would have left a free run at the ticket office for any trust members, phone orders, vulnerable people and any season ticket holders who really are unable to navigate online ticket sales.

Today's process was a delight compared to previous big cup ties. Well done to the staff who worked today and commiserations to the queue people who missed out.

https://www.newport-county.co.uk/conten ... tions-.pdf

Guide for any support for online sales.

It hasn't been a delight for trust members. My opinion is that too many freebies have been handed out, and with season ticket holders doubling up via their trust memberships, there won't be enough to go around. General sale ,no chance.

I don't understand why people with a season ticket and an email address chose to queue for 6 hours which led to trust members being frozen out.

Hopefully anyone with a season ticket uses the online option, leaving tomorrow free for trust members etc.

All I can say is I feel this isn't on the club, there is/was no need for the queues today.

rncfc wrote: January 18th, 2024, 8:19 pm

G Guest wrote: January 18th, 2024, 7:41 pm Oh Dear! Sorry to hear this. I don't know if it can be done but let's extend the hours tomorrow and not have a repeat of this problem.
It would be a great pity if the potential to expand support for County was turned into a means to put people off the club.

I was next in the queue. I wonder where in the queue I'll be if I rejoin it tomorrow?

I can't take another day of work to queue again, so it's unlikely I'll be going now. A situation poorly handled, administered, and no people skills on display whatsoever.

36 years I've been going. The way I feel right now, this might be the last.

I won't be the last time you go Richard. I know we've had our differences in the past but like me you're hooked.

Two points to answer other posts. Since the draw was made it has been known that there was a real possibility of this game. It was certain at 9-45 on Tuesday night. It would have been easy enough to have brought in four or five Agency workers so as not to rely on volunteers. I'm sure they would have done the job more efficiently. (No criticism of the volunteers) So to save a few hundred quid eh? Sorry but this was not logistically difficult, no excuse.

As for George Guest's point re loss of fans or revenue. He is right but that is of very little matter compared to how people have been treated. Old people freezing. Young kids going home in tears. People on limited income losing a days pay. Dreams destroyed.

Shameful doesn't begin to sum up this fiasco.

Edit. I have now seen Papski2's posts. I am in utter despair.

Collars wrote: January 18th, 2024, 7:20 pm On the flip side they are mostly volunteers working there? Not saying it couldn’t have been planned better (I don’t know the detail) but I guess when the club rely on volunteers most of the time it’s impossible to ramp things up at short notice for events like this.

I won't slag off any volunteers, and I know a few of the girls in there on a personal level.

They had clearly been told to close the shutters at 7pm, as Donna would probably work until the queue was gone if she was allowed to.

It's a shame that message wasn't relayed to anyone in the queue though. Including the lady from Bridgend who is working tomorrow and Saturday, the kids who were in tears, the elderly fella from Chepstow who had to go there and back on the bus in minus temperatures without a ticket.

Complete PR disaster for a number of fans, and one which could have been avoided easily.

Arriving at 1.45pm, you shouldn't be struggling to get to the front of a 150m queue by 7pm.

I can just remember 1957 and the game against Arsenal (I was 11 years old and hanging around outside the main gates of Somerton Park without a ticket). There were many people who couldn't get tickets for that game and were put out because they thought that they should have had one and they knew people who never went to County who got tickets. So that was a bit of a PR disaster. The attendance was 22,450, so many more than can go this time.