PUSB: 'From The Board' versus Sunderland

Jun 30, 2023

After each matchday programme this season, we publish the regular column from the Coventry City board on our website. You can read Coventry City Chief Executive Dave Boddy's column from our game against Sunderland below:

Good afternoon and welcome to the Coventry Building Society Arena as we host Sunderland today in the Sky Bet Championship.

I would also like to welcome the players, staff, supporters and officials who join us from Sunderland. In particular, we welcome two former Sky Blues staff in Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus. Mark played a key role in bringing me to Coventry City six and a half years ago, and that opportunity is something that I will always be grateful for.

This is our second home game of the season and we are now just about to pass a total of 19,000 Season Tickets sold, which is an incredible figure for us to achieve. That huge number, an increase of nearly 6000 compared to last season’s end total, created a scenario for our first home game where we would have been able to fulfil dispatch of most of the Season Cards in time – but not all.

To avoid the confusion that would have led to, where there would have been a mix of ticket types for Season Ticket holders, we went to an e-ticket only option for that game. Distribution of the e-tickets went well and on the whole supporters engaged well with their e-tickets, and there are learnings for the Football Club for the future on how fans interact with different ticketing options and the impact on the speed of entry to the stadium.

Over the last two weeks Season Cards have been sent by Ticketmaster to supporters so that they reached supporters prior to today’s game. Obviously these should be with fans prior to the start of the season, as they have largely been for all supporters in previous campaigns, and, while appreciating the unique circumstances and increase of Season Card holders this Summer, that is something that will be addressed.

Following Ticketmaster’s bulk print process for cards, they identified an ink defect caused by one of their printers on the Block row on some cards which partially affected the text on some of the cards – all fans affected have been contacted via e-mail. This does not affect access to the stadium in any way and you can scan your card as normal.

If you feel you would like a replacement, Ticketmaster are happy to reissue your card. Please click the link on the email sent to you before 8th September 2023 to do this. You would not need to return your card and can continue using your current card until you receive a replacement should you choose this option.

Ticketmaster and CCFC expect high quality in our card print but unfortunately, on this occasion, Ticketmaster were unable to rectify the printer issue in time. Ticketmaster have expressed their sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause to fans and will be something that will be picked up with them as part of our review of this process.

Looking ahead, our Ticket Office will be moving to the new Superstore at the Arena. The Superstore will be open to supporters later next week, with details on our website shortly. Dispatch of home kits began on Thursday, with over 7000 shirt orders – an increase of 15% compared to the same period last season. Due to the success of the pre-order we want to ensure that people who have ordered the shirt receive these before they go on sale to the public in person – and we look forward to seeing Sky Blues fans proudly sporting their new shirts.

Thank you as always for your support, enjoy the game. PUSB

Dave