NO two words have been guaranteed to rile York City fans more this season than “all ticket”. The decision to designate the Sky Bet League Two matches against Mansfield today, Hartlepool last month, and Portsmouth at the end of this month as ticket-only games has each time produced a volley of complaints and invective from some disgruntled supporters.

And despite repeated, and clear, publicity by the club of the policy in the run-up to games, there have been numerous examples of people who either haven’t seen, or paid heed, to the message and have turned up at Bootham Crescent only to be turned away.

Judging by the letters pages of The Press, and the abuse club officials have received both on our website and on their own social media platforms, it’s a policy most fans would happily do away with.

But the likelihood is all-ticket games are probably here to stay and it is finance that is at the heart of the decision.

“The decision was taken to try to mitigate police costs for high-profile fixtures where we are expecting a high level of away support,” said City’s director of communications Sophie Hicks.

Basically, it is down to classification of matches. Police chiefs will grade games at Bootham Crescent according to a number of criteria, which include the estimated number of travelling fans and intelligence gathered.

A decision will then be taken on whether the game needs to be policed by officers. If it does, the club is billed accordingly.

But by making a match all-ticket, City officials know exactly who is coming to the game – even down to their names and addresses.

They can also ensure that when very high numbers of away supporters are expected, as in the case of Hartlepool for example, rival fans can’t get into the home end should the opposition sections become full.

Having this information can produce significant savings in police costs – with The Press understanding it can be as much as £6,000 a match.

Minstermen club chiefs then need to strike a balance, judging how much they might miss out on in traditional walk-up sales on a Saturday afternoon against the amount they will gain from not having to pay for significant police costs.

“It’s the high-profile games where we expect and anticipate police costs,” said Hicks.

“The ticketing policy is initiated by the number of away supporters we are expecting but, unfortunately, we are not in a position to just make it all ticket for away fans only. That’s because we could have a security problem if we left it open for home fans to pay on the day. There may be an influx of away supporters into the home end which would put people’s safety in jeopardy.

“I realise there have been questions about Portsmouth and how many fans they will be bringing to Bootham Crescent but they did make a statement to the Football League, that the police are fully aware of, where they said they anticipated a significant away following.

“It is also viewed by the police as a high-profile fixture.”

When the new stadium is finally built, York fans will also have to get used to needing a ticket for entry to every game – bringing the club into line with most others that operate from a modern ground.

Hicks said: “It is highly likely that a new system will be operated on a full ticket basis. It will be a computerised ticket system.

“We do try to publicise these all-ticket games well in advance as much as possible. We do not aim in any way to inconvenience anyone.

“But we must look sensibly at the situation and try to reduce our costs as much as possible.

“It’s a balancing act. There will be an element of people who would decide on the day to go to a match.

“We have been making sure that tickets are on sale as late as possible the day before the game and, as a football club, we naturally want as many people in the stadium as possible.

“We will continue to work closely with the police for fixtures where there are concerns about the high number of away supporters.

“It’s important to point out that we haven’t been forced to do this – the police haven’t forced us to do this – but it is a sensible business decision.”

 

Top effort by in-form Lanre

LANRE Oyebanjo has taken over at the top of The Press Player of the Year leaderboard.

The full-back, August’s Player of the Month, was one of the few players to come out of last weekend’s 2-0 loss to AFC Wimbledon with any credit and his three-point haul not only sees him installed as the early leader in the September contest, but is also means he overtakes skipper Chris Smith to head the overall standings.

Sander Puri (2) and Ryan Jarvis (1) were the other points-scorers against the Dons.

To be in with a chance of presenting the September Press Player of the Month with a framed photograph before a City home game, vote for your man of the match from today’s game against Mansfield or tweet your choice to @daveflettpress

The Press Player of the Year latest standings: Oyebanjo 9pts, Smith 7, Jarvis 6, McGurk 5, Chambers 4, Clay 4, Montrose 3, Puri 2, Davies 1, Parslow 1.

The Press Player of the Month standings: Oyebanjo 3pts, Puri 2, Jarvis 1.

Goals: Jarvis 4.

Assists: Bowman 1, Clay 1, Cresswell 1, Smith 1.

Bad boys: Montrose three yellow cards, Smith two yellow; Bowman one red; Chambers one yellow, Clay one yellow, Coulson one yellow, Cresswell one yellow, Oyebanjo one yellow, Platt one yellow.