English League One football club Bristol Rovers has partnered with Axess and Ticketmaster to provide ticketing and access control services for their home venue Memorial Stadium. The new partnership will include the introduction of Axess software and scanning equipment for access control at the facility

Brief background of Bristol Memorial

Bristol Memorial Stadium has been in existence since 1921, but it was not until 1996 that football began to be played at the venue on a regular basis. Bristol Rovers FC took advantage of the fact that the Bristol Rugby team was looking for additional funding in a difficult situation and moved in as a shareholder, gaining a majority. From the outset, Rovers were able to use the new west stand with skyboxes, which was erected in the same year.

After just two years, in 1998, the rugby club was relegated from the Premiership, which caused considerable financial difficulties, and under the terms of the agreement Bristol Rovers were able to buy Bristol Rugby's share of the stadium for a 'nominal fee', a clause designed to protect either party should one or the other get into financial difficulties. The rugby club became a tenant in its original home. You can try to explore uk online casino in order to avoid such problems.

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In February 2013, after months of speculation, Bristol Rugby announced that it would relocate and share the ground with Bristol City at the redeveloped Ashton Gate Stadium. The rugby club played its last match at Memorial on June 4, 2014.

The Memorial Stadium Company proposed an extensive £35 million refurbishment of Memorial Stadium, increasing its capacity to 18,500 seats. On January 17, 2007 Bristol City Council granted planning permission for the redevelopment of the stadium. Later that year, it was announced that the reconstruction of the stadium had been delayed and would begin in May 2008 and be completed in December 2009. Subsequent delays, mainly attributed to the ongoing financial crisis, meant that by mid-2011 the stadium redevelopment had not yet begun. 

In June 2011, Rovers have announced their plan to move the club to the proposed UWE Stadium rather than redevelop Memorial Stadium. In August 2017, following the takeover of the club by the Al-Qadi family, the club was no longer interested in building a new stadium, but would once again explore redeveloping Memorial Stadium.

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Memorial Stadium with new partners

Bristol Rovers has announced their partnership with Axess and Ticketmaster to provide ticketing and access control services for their home venue. Axess has worked with venues around the world, including Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland and BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.

During the summer, new ticket scanners will be installed at all turnstiles and stewards will be equipped with upgraded handheld scanners. Peter Oliver, managing director of Axess UK, said: We are delighted to be working in partnership with Bristol Rovers and Ticketmaster as we introduce Axess’ high-quality stadium access control system into the UK market. In an established market, innovation, quality and reliability is of equal importance as we move into the era of digital tickets.

Pete Weymouth, Rovers’ retail and ticketing manager, added: Being able to work with one company for ticketing and fan entry into the stadium will make processes at the club a lot smoother. We suffered some challenges at the start of last season, and it took a lot of work going between the numerous companies we were working with. Since that point, Ticketmaster has worked with us to get us back to where we should be, and now we’ll move forward with the new Axess system, I am confident of delivering a service to our fans next season that exceeds their expectations.

© Scott Webber (cc: by-nc-nd)