A quick update on Croke Park season ticket scanning and attendance problems

Here’s a quick update on Croke Park season ticket scanning and attendance problems. Due to an unprecedented amount of emails and messages over the course of the past 36 hours or so, we wanted to post a quick update on our quest to work with the GAA season ticket office to resolve the problems some of you have been having with your season ticket attendance records. (This is not our first time in this situation – the problem hasn’t gone away you know!)

A short synopsis: Basically lots of you contacted us after the Dublin game either by email, Facebook or Twitter to say that you or a family member had attended the game and scanned your season ticket at the gates, only for your attendance not to register on your record. Upon notifying the season ticket office, most of you were told that as no problems had been reported from the venue on the day, your attendance records would not be manually updated. As the numbers contacting us rose, we started to make a list, and after a few days decided to contact the Croke Park office directly with the names and season ticket numbers of those who were happy to provide them – 21 in total at the time (there have been many more since) – to see if we could intervene on your behalf and show that despite their claims that no issues had been reported from the venue, there clearly was a problem.

We had previously experienced problems (see here for details) and so could understand the position of the office and their reluctance to manually update records after games. However we felt that those who had contacted us were genuine, had attended the game and scanned their tickets in good faith, and ultimately, deserved to be treated fairly in return for their investment in the season ticket (at a cost of €99 per adult and €20 per juvenile).

What followed was a very frustrating exchange of emails, where the season ticket office refused to engaged and repeatedly told us they could not discuss individual accounts with us (at no stage did we ask them to). Ultimately, we got nowhere and the tone of the replies from the season ticket office became more and more irate. They were adamant that each complaint was assessed on a case-by-case basis, and so we had little choice but to advise the people on our list to keep following up with them individually.

On Wednesday on MidWest Radio Paul Claffey read out a letter on his show from a lady who had experienced the same problem, and we followed up with an email to the station last night. Tommy Marren yesterday devoted a substantial portion of his show to the problem – you can listen back on the link below. We have since been contacted by a number of other supporters with the same problem. MidWest Radio will be following this up again next week and are looking for more supporters to speak on air – please contact us with your details if you are willing to go on air and we will put you in touch.

We unfortunately feel we’ve reached the end of the road with the season ticket office – they have made it clear that they will not engage with us further. We are however currently seeking legal advice on the matter and will, with permission, keep a record of the many people who have contacted us with problems and produce it should it be needed at a later stage.  If you have been affected by this problem, we would urge you to continue following up with the season ticket office directly. Other avenues of complaint include the following:

• Pricewatch in the Irish Times (email link)
• The Consumer Association of Ireland (email link)
• The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (contact form)

There are a couple of things we wish to point out:

• Firstly, we feel strongly that the volunteers and stewards at the turnstiles in Elverys MacHale Park do everything in their power to ensure that things run smoothly on match days. This is not the fault or responsibility of any of the people who give their time so generously. Nor is this issue within the control of Mayo GAA, as they are not responsible for attendance records.

• Secondly, the season ticket office has in the past explained that fraudulent scanning of tickets is a problem. The bottom line is this: if you turn up on match days with a handful of tickets in your back pocket to give to strangers to get them scanned, you are part of the problem and your behaviour is affecting genuine supporters. Yes, you can hand over your ticket to a friend if you can’t make a game, but the season ticket scheme is a loyalty scheme, designed to reward supporters who genuinely attend games with access to an All-Ireland ticket, should their county reach the final. Your abuse of the system just means that other people have to spend their free time arguing with the season ticket office when they could be doing far more fun things like say, tweezing out their toenails or sticking pins in their eyes. Just saying.

• Thirdly, we hear that those fancy Cairde Mhaigheo tickets do not depend on an attendance record to access an All-Ireland ticket should we in Mayo be lucky enough to need one. Yes, they are more expensive, but they also entitle you to entry to club championship games and some sexy Mayo GAA clobber. So y’know, something to think about for next year!

We’ll be back with an update in due course.

Update 19th April 2016

Rob from Mayo Club 51 was interviewed on the Tommy Marren show on Mid west radio with an update on the issues regarding the problems with scanning season tickets. Also in the interview, Tommy reads out a statement from Alan Milton from Croke Park.

In other news – six weeks to London – the countdown is on! Keep an eye on London GAA’s Facebook page for updates on tickets, which we believe are scarcer than feathers on a fish ….

Mayo GAA PRO Paul Cunnane was interviewed on the Tommy Marren show on Tuesday 19th April regarding the situation with the London v Mayo ticket scarcity for Mayo fans.

Til next time,
The Mayo Club ’51 team

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