TIM Waddington admits matchdays at Colchester United will be a ‘different proposition’ following the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the U’s general manager insists he is more optimistic heading into the new season than he did the previous campaign.
Colchester are awaiting confirmation on when fans will be allowed back at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Anyone who bought a Seasonal Match Permit to watch Colchester last season will be able to go online and snap up tickets for the upcoming new League Two campaign, from Thursday onwards.
The U’s played all be two of their home games at the stadium behind closed doors in the last campaign, due to restrictions in place because of the pandemic.
The EFL are hopeful that clubs will be able to welcome supporters back into stadiums in time for the big kick-off, on August 7.
But although he admits there will have to be changes to the matchday experience, Waddington says the U’s have a flexible system in place to deal with different eventualities.
He said: “I definitely feel more optimistic going into this season than last, because we know what the landscape is now, where it’s been and I think we know where we’re going.
“I think we’ll have to scale up from our current position and have a look at how we operate even the really mundane things like toilet facilities, through to catering facilities to ticketing and access control.
“All of it can be scaled up quite readily from the starting point, so I’m confident on that side.
“There’s some very, very talented I.T. guys who do a hell of a job for us – the flexibility of the ticketing system to maximise the available space that we’ve got within bubbles and this kind of stuff is quite a complex thing.
“I don’t know of any other club at our level or even getting close to it.
“There will be some lessons learnt from this experience which will see things done in a different way.
“Certain things were always done in a certain way because that’s the way you did them and I think now, you have to think differently.
“We were forced to go online with ticketing but actually, it’s working really well.
“Nobody wanted it but now you’ve got it, people are comfortable with it and pleased to use that system, so I can see us not doing the same amount on matchdays ever, going forward – it will be a different proposition.”
For more information on Season Match Permits, please visit https://www.cu-fc.com/news/2021/june/season-match-permit-faq/
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