Stadium Management SA boosts ticketing system for Pirates-Sundowns clash

Having 120 first scanning validation points and opening 136 turnstiles are some of the measures Stadium Management SA (SMSA) has put in place to ensure its new ticketing system is hiccup-free in Wednesday’s fixture between Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.

SMSA’s new digital ticketing system, operated by its in-house entity, MyTicket, came under fire last month, experiencing a number of glitches when it was piloted in a game between Kaizer Chiefs and Golden Arrows at FNB. This led to frustration among fans, who told Sowetan that they feared there could be a stampede should there be bigger crowds at the venue.

Speaking at a press conference at Rand Stadium on Monday, SMSA CEO Bertie Grobbelaar outlined how they aim to make sure that, in Wednesday’s massive fixture between Pirates and Sundowns, the new ticketing system at this stadium doesn’t experience the hiccups it experienced when it was piloted last month.

“There’s a collaborative plan and extensive plan where we’ve married these aspects: ticketing platform, ticketing verification, crowd management and crowd control,” Grobbelaar said.

We decided to increase the number of validation points and open all the turnstiles to the venue.

—  Bertie Grobbelaar, Stadium ManagementSA CEO

“If I can give you some background, historically, and we’ve had this tested, it’s not thumb sucking; with previous capacity events, the hour before kick-off we still needed to load 51,000 people into the venue.”

The SMSA boss expanded: “Historically, half an hour before kick-off, we still need to load 34,000 people into the venue, so as far as crowd management is concerned, we decided to increase the number of validation points and open all the turnstiles to the venue. So the number of first scanning validation points is 120, and the turnstiles that will be opened for this fixture is 136.

“Now if I divide that into the 51,000 we still have to load, that gives you 357 people per turnstile in an hour … it’s more than half less than the international norm to load people through a turnstile, and that gives you nine seconds per person to get through the turnstile.”

In the Chiefs-Arrows game, thousands of frustrated fans still hadn’t entered the stadium 15 minutes before kick-off, as the scanners at the first scanning point were refusing or delaying to accept valid tickets, leading to long queues.

“We need to make sure that the scanning devices are fully functional. We’ve implemented access points and fibre lines, not to be reliant on Wi-Fi, so all the devices are going to be connected,” Grobbelaar vowed.

By Monday afternoon, more than 31,000 tickets had been sold. Grobbelaar said they hope to sell at least 60,000 tickets for this Pirates-Downs clash.

Sowetan