United shop under siege
As Rangers fans try to get home end tickets for what could be an SPL title decider at Tannadice on Sunday, staff at Dundee United’s club shop have had to call in the police to restore calm (writes Tom Duthie).
With away end briefs sold out, over the past few days there has been a steady flow of Gers supporters heading for the ticket desk and posing as Tangerines fans in a bid to reserve seats for the home stands.
Thanks to a strict vetting system, though, the vast majority have been turned away and that has led to some angry scenes, with one instance, on Monday, seeing the police having to attend.
While they were on the scene in minutes, United’s own security staff had already restored order.
There has been a string of other incidents where staff have been verbally abused for refusing sales to fans who quite clearly had no allegiance to the home team.
And Tannadice director Derek Robertson has paid tribute to the ticket office team for the way they’ve been handling another difficult end to the season — they were in a similar position when Celtic won the league there last season.
“The ticketing and shop staff have been absolutely superb. Despite being under severe pressure and often being subject to abuse, both over the phone and in person in the shop, due to the strict verification procedures for ticket sales for this match, they've coped very well with good humour and patience,” he said.
“The police had to be called in only once and, even then, our security people had the matter well in hand. We’re a small business in most respects and we’re very lucky to have such good staff.”
Derek himself got a taste of what club employees are having to put up with when he manned the phones in a bid to help cope with demand.
“It was amazing to hear from so many life-long United fans, who didn’t appear on any of our numerous databases or who couldn’t answer the most basic of questions about the club.
“There will undoubtedly have been some genuine United fans, who, for some reason or another, couldn’t satisfy any of the database criteria, but most seemed to accept the situation.
“This does, however, again demonstrate how important it can be to make sure they’re on a database — if not a season ticket holder, then by joining ArabTRUST or ArabZONE or subscribing to the free weekly e-newsletter.”
Today, only a small number of single-seat tickets for the United end remained, and they must be purchased in person at the ticket office.
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