Technical difficulties on Tuesday prevented Sydney Swans and GWS Giants fans from purchasing tickets for the qualifying final at the SCG on Saturday.
While waiting to purchase tickets for the now sold-out game, Giants fans complained on social media that they were timed off of the website, and Swans supporters encountered difficulties with Ticketek not recognising their member barcodes during the member pre-sale.
A few participants reported that the twenty-minute barcode issue caused them to be pushed to the back of the digital queue.
When questioned about the problems scanning barcodes when attempting to buy game tickets, a Ticketek representative said that the cause might be the security settings of the fans.
“The on-sale today and yesterday were completely sold out, and interest is at an all-time high. The representative stated that fans were able to successfully and without any problems purchase tickets for the first week of the AFL finals.
Every now and then, a tiny percentage of people have their security settings adjusted against our cyber safety guidelines.
“As each instance comes to our attention, we try to collaborate with them to offer support when we can. The security measures we have in place to guarantee that every fan has an equal and fair opportunity to purchase tickets are the exact cause of these problems.
“We are excited to see all of the fans in week one.”
There are concerns that the technical difficulties might recur because the Swans, win or lose against the Giants, will play at least one more week of finals footy at the SCG in the preliminary final or semi-final, respectively.
After hearing from fans about their negative experiences, President of the AFL Fans Association Ron Issko feels that a review of the Ticketek and Ticketmaster-managed AFL finals ticketing system is warranted.
“The Ticketek and Ticketmaster system simply needs to be completely redesigned, tested on high-demand games, and fixed so it can handle high-demand games, because right now we keep hearing the same thing every year,” Issko stated.
“It’s really frustrating to promote the game in NSW; it’s disappointing for Sydney Swans fans and GWS fans as well.
“We experience these hiccups—and I use the word hiccups very, very generously—when an MCG or SCG sells out. For some people, it’s a real disaster, and [the systems] should be battle tested so they can withstand the high-demand games.”
The Swans’ sold-out game for next Saturday is expected to approach the 47,323 spectators that packed the SCG for the opening week of the 2017 finals against Essendon, seven years ago, when the record was set. This information was released on Wednesday.
This year, the Swans have also had their best average attendance at the SCG. With 38,202 fans, it easily outperformed the 33,959 that was the next-highest number in 2018.
The AFLW team of the Swans is also expected to draw a sizable crowd to North Sydney Oval on Friday night when they play Collingwood in their season opener.
Chloe Molloy, the captain, is excited to lead the squad against her old side at the location where the Swans won the competition for the first time last year, having made it to the finals for the first time last year.
After the first-week victory over the Giants, Molloy remarked, “The buzz at North Sydney Oval was insane.” “I can still clearly recall the crowd and the goal I kicked. I’ve never heard a crowd this boisterous, and coming from a Melburnian perspective, I couldn’t believe it. It will be enormous. Come on, it’s going to be late.
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