Digital tickets - what Sky Blues fans need to know

The last time Coventry City fans were in the Premier League, Apple launched iTunes, allowing users to buy music and play it on their portable devices. Buying a match day ticket to watch Sky Blues, though, still meant handing over physical cash in return for a paper ticket.

Twenty-five years later, and due to requirements from the Premier League, tickets are now digital and downloaded to phones and other mobile tech.

However, it has led to some confusion over how the digital ticketing system operates. There has been just one game at the CBS Arena so far this season, which means supporters are still getting to grips with how the new scheme works.

In response, BBC CWR has compiled the following guide to what fans need to know, particularly around the issue of transferring tickets.

That's because last season, when the club was in the Championship, if fans had a season ticket but could not make it to a particular home game, they could simply hand their physical season ticket to a friend, who could go in their place.

This season, everything works differently.

Yes.

General admission season tickets can be forwarded to one of five pre-selected supporters.

An Adult, Senior, Young Adult or Premier League package season ticket can be sent to a supporter of any age, as long as they are one of those five nominated recipients.

Tickets for under-14 and under 18 fans can only be used by children in the same age band.

However, if you have a Personal Assistant ticket to help a disabled supporter, it cannot be forwarded to someone else who is not going to the game with the disabled fan.

But wait, there's more...

This is where it might get complicated.

If fans are planning to forward their season ticket, the recipient must be in their "network", and registered with the club's e-ticketing system.

Whoever they choose has to be someone who is not already an existing season ticket holder.

Also, once they have chosen their list of five, it cannot be changed. That selection lasts the entire season.

Fans can do that by going through their account on the club's e-ticketing website.

However, if their friend has already accepted the forwarded ticket, season ticket holders cannot withdraw it.

So they might have to go to Auntie Margaret's 95th birthday party instead of watching the Sky Blues play Aston Villa at the CBS in December.

In June 2024, the Premier League agreed that all member clubs would move to a digital ticket-only system no later than the 2026-27 season.

However, they did allow clubs that were newly promoted a two-year grace period to introduce it.

Coventry City decided to implement it in their first season back in the top flight, along with other changes at the CBS Arena, like an improved television gantry and the installation of the technology used for VAR.

Paul Armstrong, the technology adviser to the TBD Group, a technology consultancy firm, said the ticketing changes were something supporters would have to get used to.

"It's a new system, but sometimes the real world often scuppers the best laid plans.

"I would say give [the club] a bit of grace, do your best to get down and support and test the system and let them know when things go wrong.

"Don't just get frustrated and vent online, give them an email, or phone up and tell them what's not working, so they can make sure it works in the future."

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