Foxes_Trust

We had just under 600 responses to our survey but the survey results itself form only one element of why we are pushing the club on this. We monitored the response to club announcements on digital ticketing across social media and message boards and, of course, know that a huge number of fans paid £25 to keep a physical season ticket card this season. We have also had many fans reaching out to us direct with challenges around digital tickets. There are of course a number of reasons as to why some fans don't want digital. We've heard direct examples that range from wanting a physical momento, to having concerns over being tracked, to not having a smart phone or wanting to take one to the football, to wanting to share season tickets across family members, to having seen delays getting into the stadium at cup games where this has been used. As a Trust. all we can do is try to monitor fan sentiment and represent where we feel there is a need to. You may personally feel that age is not a factor, the club would appear to think differently by offering an age-based exemption to digital. In contact we've had from fans, it has been mentioned as a factor in many examples so it's worth mentioning.

Renewed your season ticket and want to move? It’s time to act. – Foxes Trust Did you renew your season ticket by 5pm on 9 April? Do you want to relocate to a different seat, either in the same block, or a different part of the ground? If you do, is time for you to act. The club has published information about the process which started on 11 April. Moving out of a safe standing area – If you want to move out of a safe standing area you need to contact the club by Thursday 17 April, 5pm. Moving into a safe standing area – If you were successful in the ‘Safe Standing Ballot’ you will receive an email from the Club by 23 April letting you know that you have a 7-day window between 9am on 24 April until 5pm on 30 April to let the club know where you want to be in the safe standing areas. North & South Stand – The club will then deal with people wishing to move into, or within, the North or South Stands between Thursday 1 May, 9am – Wednesday 7 May, 5pm and contact you about where you’ll be sitting. East & West Stand – Then between Thursday 8 May, 9am – Wednesday 14 May, 5pm the club will deal similarly with people wanting to relocate into or within the East or West stands. You can contact the club about moving seats by phone, or in person at the Matchday Ticket Office, or by email. See the full guidance here – Season Ticket Relocations If you have any issues with moving, please contact the Trust via the email address [email protected].

At least the adjustment from a fixed up to 5 transfers & up to 5 resales, to be a flexible 10 games which has now been agreed following our initial dialogue with the club should work for your circumstances, but we are still pushing for more

Full article on our website here: https://foxestrust.co.uk/11808/leicester-city-and-the-digital-ticket-debate As the deadline for season ticket renewals has now passed, the Foxes Trust is setting out what we want the club to do regarding its continued drive towards digital tickets. We also set out below the engagement we’ve already had with the club and our one-to-one assistance given to fans to help them navigate their way to successfully renewing a season ticket card.... What we now want the club to do Stop the roll out of digital tickets if the club is relegated (make it digital by decision rather than digital by default). Make the number of ticket transfers and re-sales in a digital ticketing policy unlimited. Provide complete transparency on the full list of possible exemptions. Recent Trust Engagement with LCFC During March we were directly engaging with the club over two main concerns regarding digital tickets: 1) We believed that, in the event of relegation to The Championship, a significant percentage of Leicester City fans would want to maintain a physical season ticket card and not be forced into digital ticketing. 2) If we did avoid relegation, with Premier League rules seeking up to 70% of tickets being issued digitally in 2025/26, as the Premier League move towards a total digital format by the 2026/27 season, we felt it important that the number of ticket transfers and re-sales permitted should be increased beyond the five already permitted. Leicester City responded quickly, and our letter clearly had impact, with their agreement to increase the number of permitted transfers to 10 (double what it was previously) and shortly afterwards they went public with this change. The Trust felt this was a step in the right direction on this particular issue – even though we would like to see this increased further still (17 out of 20 Premier League clubs currently have no limit). But the Club also told us that they were unprepared to move on reducing the pace of introduction of digital tickets because they had been discussed via the Fan Engagement Framework and “received extensive support, with little or no objection”. This was surprising to hear and did not align with the feedback we had been receiving from our members and the wider fan base. In view of this the Trust therefore launched its own a digital ticketing survey to understand fan sentiment towards digital ticketing. Our survey found as follows: – Over 85% of fans surveyed disagree with the decision LCFC intends to make to adopt Premier League rules for digital ticketing even if the Club is playing in The Championship next season. – Almost 50% of fans surveyed either don’t trust the technology for digital tickets or do not possess a smart phone to be able to use them. – Almost 50% of fans surveyed have experienced difficulties using digital tickets. All of this points to the Club’s drive to sell tickets on a digital by default basis being widely unpopular and unwelcomed by many Leicester City supporters. Who can apply for a Digital Ticket Exemption? Even if the club does not relent from its push for digital tickets, at the very least they could make it easier for fans to seek exemption from them. The Trust has found itself needing to help fans on a one-to-one basis engage with Club about digital exemptions. It is currently unclear what is classified as a valid reason for an exemption, and we would like to see the Club publicise with full transparency the full list of possible exemptions and make it easier for eligible fans to apply for them. As things stand, the only information that has been shared by the Club is as follows: – Seniors (aged 65 and over) – Supporters aged under 16 – Supporters who have registered a disability with the Club The deadline for registering an exemption for a season ticket card is Monday 19th May. We feel the current approach could be particularly distressing or confusing for elderly supporters, supporters who have legitimate reasons for not being able to use the technology and supporters with disabilities. Our Conclusions: The Foxes Trust believes that the Club would be making a bad decision to roll out digital tickets in The Championship where there is no mandate to do so. The prospect of digital tickets is disincentivising loyal fans from renewing their season tickets, or purchasing match day tickets, and the apparent lack of openness to hear fan concerns on this issue is further damaging the relationship between the Club and its supporters. In a scenario where digital tickets would be necessity (due to the mandate from the Premier League), the current guidance for fans that are eligible for a physical season ticket card is unclear and the limitations placed on Leicester City fans is out of sync with other Premier League clubs. A sample of what Leicester City supporters have told us in recent weeks: – “This decision is discriminatory and entirely at odds with the current era of pushing inclusivity at every turn. I haven’t come across any organisation – of any type/size/sector – that has sought to exclude me from their customer base because I don’t happen to own a smart phone.” – “As a season ticket holder, I simply don’t want or agree with it. I know people who don’t have a smart phone and/or don’t take it to games with them.” – “You only have to look at the replies to the Club’s social media posts to see fans are very much opposed to digital ticketing. The club is so far removed from what it once was, it was a community, they used to look after their fans. It’s unrecognisable now to the point we don’t feel valued or respected.” – “I’ve used digital ticketing on two occasions, on both occasions digital ticketing failed causing me to miss the start of the game.” – “I can renew and have a digital ticket or not renew at all. That isn’t a choice, it’s an ultimatum.” – “My work and travel situation means I have a number of occasions where I cannot make it to Leicester. For 12 years my mother has used my ST to accompany my father. This has allowed us to support the club as a family. It is a tragedy that the community and family aspect of easily sharing a ticket is such a problem for the powers that be.” We ask any supporter whom has had difficulties regarding the exemptions for digital ticketing, or challenges with the current policy that are preventing them from renewing their season ticket, to contact the Trust via the email address [email protected] so that we can feed this back to the Club.

There needs to be plenty of Comms reminding everyone to download onto their wallet before getting to the ground That was the main issue at the Cup game

Recommend that you contact the club tomorrow (renewal deadline) & check a) As the club need to know if you weren’t informed and are affected (please contact the Trust if that was the case) b) So you can register you want to move out if you don’t want to stand As the transferring in & out of safe standing process starts after the renewal deadline

That's the best way of working, but if the kids are U16, you can apply for physical cards for them. One of our board tried the digital route for the Cup game, and is reasonably tech savvie and said using the physical cards is certainly quicker

You don’t get a parachute payment if you get promoted, so we only will have received one for the 23/24 season

Remember your Dad will still have to apply for a physical card, over 65’s don’t automatically get one. In terms of the digital ticket, it depends how your Mum’s individual record is set up on the LCFC database, if you wanted both tickets to your phone you could change your Mum’s record to your phone number, unless your Mum enjoys LCFC phone notifications

No, they don't have to have memberships, just be on the LCFC database

The move to digital tickets isn’t something invented by LCFC, the drive is from the Premier League * * The clubs all point to following PL rules, but the PL is the 20 Premier League clubs It is a separate question as to whether the club needs to follow PL guidelines if not playing in the PL

Yes, following lobbying, the club agreed to be more flexible than the original fixed up to 5 transfers & 5 for resale So season ticket holders can now do any combination of transfers & resales with a total maximum of 10 Of course you are not certain to get your match value refund if the seat doesn’t resell you won’t Also on transfers, the person you are transferring to needs to be linked to your account with their details on the LCFC database

We ask any supporter whom has had difficulties regarding the exemptions for digital ticketing, or challenges with the current policy that are preventing them from renewing their season ticket, to contact the Trust via the email address [email protected] so that we can feed this back to the Club.

In acknowledgement of concerns from the Leicester City fanbase over digital ticketing, the Foxes Trust would like to hear from supporters. What are your views on digital ticketing? Please take the survey now, it’ll only take a couple of minutes to complete: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9FN9HZ7 We ask any supporter whom has had difficulties regarding the exemptions for digital ticketing, or challenges with the current policy that are preventing them from renewing their season ticket, to contact the Trust via the email address [email protected] so that we can feed this back to the Club.

We've raised £1500 for YMCA Leicestershire. Their current total is £15400. A huge thank you to everyone that donated, it is very much appreciated. https://foxestrust.co.uk/11727/foxes-trust-raises-1500-for-ymca-leics If there are any other community events you would like the Trust to consider supporting, let us know.

Yes aware of that, we are looking to put something forward quite quickly

Stubbornness! There is an obvious conclusion that to allow say 10 transfers instead of 5 transfers and 5 resales would deny the club the additional revenue of 5 tickets at matchday prices (if they do re-sell) Of course if they don’t resell, then the ST holder is losing the promoted benefit of receiving 1/19th of the ST price back The Trust will be saying more on this soon

This was one of the known reasons that so many kept the physical card last season, we have made precisely this point with the club, we did last summer when we lobbied for more flexibility, so instead of 5 permitted transfers & 5 resales, that up to 10 transfers were allowed. We haven't given up on this issue.

The limit is 5 transfers & 5 resales, so 10 in total, which might work for you, but we are still pushing for the club to be more flexible, like many other clubs

Becky is joining us as well now. Bit concerned Harry may not fit in the box lengthways and me widthways. Thanks to those that have sponsored us so far, much appreciated, we've hit £675 of the £1000 target already. Every little adds up, if you can help, please donate here: https://ymcaleics.enthuse.com/pf/foxes-trust Lynn

The Trust was lobbying for the amount of permitted transfers to be higher than 5 last summer, if your mate would like to e-mail [email protected] we would like to discuss this further with them

In terms of the QPR game, the problem was many fans who are not regulars being unaware of the process - the club has acknowledged that there needs to be additional comms for this type of fixture. The FAB are working with the club on a Donate option (a brief mention of this was included in the FAB fan rep statement)

The Trust was lobbying for the amount of permitted transfers to be higher than 5 last summer, if you would like to message us directly on here or e-mail [email protected] we would like to discuss this further with you

There will be a process in place, if anybody applies and feel their case hasn't been handled fairly then e-mail [email protected]