Birmingham City to bring in card entry system

Jun 10 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Mail

Birmingham City have become the latest club to ditch traditional season ticket booklets in favour of a single card.

Following their promotion to the Premier League, Blues have decided to install a state-of-the-art entry system at St Andrew’s that is fit for the top flight.

Rather than having to tear out vouchers, season ticket holders will now just use a wallet-sized card to get through the turnstiles for home matches.

Several Premier League outfits including Manchester United, Arsenal and Blackburn already operate a similar system but Blues are the first to install Ticketmaster’s AccessManager.

Non-season ticket holders who book online will also benefit from a much simpler system, as they will be able to print their tickets at home via Ticketmaster’s TicketFast®service and present them at the turnstiles.

AccessManager is just one of several improvements that are taking place at St Andrew’s this summer. Under-soil heating, a new pitch, a big screen and a new Tannoy system will all be in place next season as well as the renamed Gill Merrick Stand, formerly the Railway End.

Blues’ MD Karren Brady added: “When the board made our pledges to the supporters in January we said we would work hard and invest to make their match-day experience more enjoyable.

“Having already started work on bringing under-soil heating, a new pitch and a big screen to St Andrew’s in time for the start of the 2009/10 season, access control adds to the list of the things we are doing to achieve exactly that.”