Stadium Management SA (SMSA) chief executive Bertie Grobbelaar says there’s no turning back on the era of digital tickets, while admitting that the new ticketing system implemented at FNB Stadium last week to eradicate match-day fraud experienced teething problems. SMSA came under fire last week when its new system experienced hiccups at the turnstiles when Kaizer Chiefs hosted Golden Arrows at FNB Stadium, leading to frustration among fans, who told Sowetan they feared there could be a stampede should there be bigger crowds at the venue. But Grobbelaar said his company was working hard to eliminate the cited problems—such as an insufficient number of scanners, which led to long queues delaying fans’ entry to the stadium.
Responding to these concerns following the renaming of Orlando Stadium this week, Grobbelaar told Sowetan, “You have to say more things went right than wrong when we tested the system last week. “We ticked more boxes, but there are a few more that we need to tick. The aim of the system is to prevent people without tickets from getting into the venue.
They ended up at the turnstiles because they couldn’t scan any ticket—so that box was ticked.” On the scanning devices that fans said had malfunctioned, Grobbelaar promised SMSA was working with developers to improve them. “There was a problem with the time-setting on the scanning devices. We’ve already met with the suppliers of the hardware, and we will have the scanners fixed for the next match at FNB: Chiefs v Stellenbosch (on February 24),” he said.
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“We are also going to increase the number of scanning points. We can list a lot of things we need to improve on, but when you implement a new system, it does take time to get it right.” While it was initially thought SMSA would roll out the ticketing system across all the venues it runs, including the Orlando Amstel Arena, Grobbelaar disclosed it will only be used at FNB Stadium for the present. This means the system won’t be operational when Orlando Pirates host Mamelodi Sundowns on February 18, but it is hoped it will be in full swing for the February 28 Soweto derby at FNB. “At this point, Pirates will face Sundowns at Orlando, so we will only roll out the system to other venues once we are 100% certain it has worked at FNB,” Grobbelaar said.
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