It is clear that from listening to City supporters, reading the Sky Blue Trust's output on Facebook etc, their major gripe is that if one major thing needs sorting then it has to be the ticket office. It's that one place that every single one of us has to use and for many supporters, this is their only contact with the club.
We simply cannot have the situations which have cropped up recently whereby supporters are unable to get through on the phone, be it to ascertain to information, to buy tickets or sort out the whereabouts of tickets or if a member of the ticket office staff is off sick, their job is not fully covered.
Now we are not blaming the current staff in the ticket office, who do a good job under difficult circumstances. What I am blaming is the decision made by Ray Ranson & SISU a few seasons ago to cut the number of staff in the ticket office.
The ticket office needs enough dedicated staff to be able to man the phones and staff to serve supporters at both the Ricoh Arena and City Central outlets.
The staff, cannot be expected to do both at the same time and as the ticket office is the main place where the club makes a good percentage of its annual income, it does not take the owner of a maths degree to work out that being able to deal with every supporter who walks into the shop, emails or phones up is dealt with, with the correct infromation, as promptly as is humanly possible, has to be the club's number one priority.
There must surely be other staff that can be moved from their full-time office jobs (Programme Editor maybe, hardly a full time job as anyone who has produced a match day programme will tell you) to ensure that the needs of supporters are met at busy periods, if the cost of employing more staff is an issue, which knowing SISU, it probably is.
Ok, the club has on-line facilities in order for supporters to purchase tickets. However, not everyone has internet facilities at their disposal 24/7, (ever tried navigating the club website on your phone - not easy) or access to a credit/debit card and when you do get on-line the system, which appears designed by someone who thinks in binary rather than human beings, and that still requires people to process your order and send out your ticket.
There are enough reasons already for supporters not to come to matches at the Ricoh Arena but the hassle of not being able to get a ticket easily and knowing the score regarding match tickets etc need not be two of them.