‘Following problems encountered with the online ticket booking system and entry at the first game against Sheffield, we have been in discussions with our landlords and service providers, HCAL, to identify and resolve. As we find with almost everything we set out to achieve in our first season, Rome was not built in a day! HCAL has identified the booking issue with certain types of payment cards and this should be resolved by 21st September.
In terms of entry, I think we all agree that Saturday’s game was a vast improvement. There are still some nuances to sort but HCAL are having to work with an old system and new adaptations. There should be improvements week on week. Please remain courteous to staff who are trying so hard to cope.
We wish to go on record as thanking our commercial partners, HCAL (and particularly Mark and Colin), for their efforts this week to resolve both issues and we look forward to construction partnership with them for the remainder of the season and beyond.
On a personal note, I would like to thank supporters for their amazing support over the last two weeks. We won’t hide from the fact that whilst we are getting most things right, there are still areas we need to (and will) improve. This is frustrating for all concerned but happens when a totally new organisation starts up in this sport. Your kind, patient words reflect those of away supporters, many of whom love our shirts, logo and the merchandise on offer.
Our target for the next few weeks is to release more merchandise (this has been held up due to availability) but more pressing is the urgency to bring our imports over to the UK. The position is this: as a new business we have to apply for a sponsor licence which existing clubs were aware of since December 2021. This takes over 12 weeks but only after a) we are formally accepted into the league and b) we have obtained various approvals from the EIHA. While the league worked quickly, delays were inevitable. From there we have to apply for visas for each player. Normally this takes 4 weeks but the Home Office has experienced unprecedented delays. We are now at week 4 so we are looking for approval within the week but cannot guarantee this. Once we have approval we will fly our imports over the same day. They are raring to go!! And we are eager to see them arrive. There is apositive here in that our academy players have had the best opportunity imaginable to get ice time. I cannot describe how proud we were of last night’s performance when four very young players made such an impact and two scored their senior debut goals. So keep the faith and rest assured we will improve on and off the ice every week.’
