New ticket system causes frustration among Roughriders fans

The Sea of Green was a sea of frustration Friday.

When the Saskatchewan Roughriders took the field for their first CFL home game in almost two years, fans gathered not only inside Mosaic Stadium, but in long lineups outside the facility due to the malfunction of the new digital ticket system.

(Don Black/Submitted)

Randy Johnson, a 25-year season-ticket holder, was among those forced to wait.

“We had the tickets sitting in our Rider app/Ticketmaster account,” Johnson said. “A couple hours before the game, when my wife was about to leave, we went to pull them up and we had all kinds of errors or the ‘system is busy’ messages, and things like that.”

After being fed up with receiving the constant “error” and “try again later” pop-ups, Johnson called the ticket office and was put on hold for approximately 30 minutes.

“We stayed on hold and finally got through and you can sort of tell that the people were a bit frazzled,” Johnson said. “We start explaining our situation that we couldn’t get into our Ticketmaster account and they said, ‘Yeah, the system’s down.’

“Having worked in software development in the past, I figured that it maybe looked good on paper, but when you got 20,000 people trying to access the system at once, the system must have crashed or something.”

Eventually, the ticket office took down Johnson’s cell number and texted a copy of their tickets.

“We received the text, and we have the sort of electronic copy of all the tickets and this thing that updates every 15 seconds, or whatever it was,” Johnson said.

Upon arrival at the stadium, Johnson recalled the lineups were quite long, but moving fast. Other fans told 980 CJME they waited approximately two hours in lineups, some stretching as far back as the Brandt Centre.

The lines were not only due to the ticket scanner, but because of security.

“There seemed to be a little confusion by the security people as to what wasn’t allowed, because we had everything in clear bags and sealed bottles of water, but there seemed to be a big issue over a can of Pringles,” Johnson said. “They didn’t know if someone had to check with security whether or not to bring a can of Pringles in. We didn’t see the issue.

“But eventually, someone just said, ‘I’m gonna let him go,’ because I think they realized they had a problem getting everyone into the stadium.

“At that point, they just wanted to get everyone in. When we actually went to have the ticket scan, they didn’t even actually ask to see them, they just said, ‘How many do you have?’ and we said, ‘Three,’ and they just let us in.”

Johnson explained security took their word without seeing their tickets.

“I know they wanted everyone in their seats at a certain time, and whether that was for the pre-game ceremonies or to look good on TSN, I don’t know,” Johnson said. “(It) needs some fine tuning or some repairs before for next weekend.”

The Roughriders are to play host to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday.

Johnson recalled the efficiency of past games where he would wear his pass on a lanyard that hung around his neck.

“I didn’t see the issue with the old system where you had to scan it, or they had to scan that pass hanging around your neck sort of thing,” Johnson said. “I think it seemed like someone thought (changing the system) was a good idea, but it’s often tough to really test it out for a crowd that size, and I think it didn’t work too good. “

The Roughriders provided 980 CJME with a written statement that read: “As to be expected with any new process and a capacity crowd for the first game, there were a few hiccups, specifically with implementing a fully digital ticketing system.

“These issues were not limited to the Roughriders, as many professional teams across the NFL and CFL encountered similar in the switch over to digital tickets. The club will be adding more support staff at the gates to improve flow and we also encourage fans to download the Rider App and load their tickets onto their smartphone before heading to the stadium. This will ensure a much faster stadium entry.”

Much like other fans, Johnson was relieved to finally walk through the stadium doors once again.

“It didn’t take away from the experience at all. I mean, everyone was frustrated, but empathetic with the people,” Johnson said. “Everyone just wanted to get back into the stadium and watch a Rider game and have a good time.

“After two years without a game, it’s probably different people working the entrances and the security and all that stuff. I think it’s just a learning curve … I think everyone has to be patient, but I would maybe advise everyone to not leave it to the last minute to get things in order.”