COLCHESTER United chairman Robbie Cowling says they will wait for more clarity on the easing of Covid-19 restrictions before announcing their ticket plans for the new season.
The U’s are yet to reveal their ticketing information for games at the JobServe Community Stadium in the 2021-22 campaign, with uncertainty still surrounding how many spectators – if any – will be allowed to attend games.
The vast majority of Colchester’s games last season were played behind closed doors due to the pandemic, with around 1,000 spectators attending their home fixtures against Grimsby Town and Morecambe.
The next stage of lockdown easing is due to take place on June 21 but Cowling admits there could be restrictions throughout the forthcoming campaign.
Speaking on the club’s newly-launched Col U TV platform last night, he said: “We’d love to have given some ticket news – it could have obviously been a lot of money coming into the club had we sold season tickets and the pre-season friendlies.
“But we’ve really got to wait and see how the country is unlocking itself.
“On the 21st it’s supposed to be being unlocked where we could get fans in sitting in every seat, if it was how they said originally.
“Personally, I don’t think that will happen for the season.
“I think we’re still going to have restrictions all season but we just want to find out what’s going on before we announce it and sell our tickets.
“I’d imagine with the season going forward, it’s almost certainly going to be the permits again because they allow us the flexibility where we could have the stadium full one week and then if we don’t have anybody in the following week, we can handle that.
“We’ll almost certainly go forward with permits but I don’t want anybody buying them under false pretences – we want to make sure that the information that we give people is accurate.
“We’ve been fairly reliable with what we say.
“This season, people will be able to pick the section they go in but each week, they will be allocated their tickets based on which social distancing rules are around, how many people in bubbles, so it does change a bit each time we do it.
“Sadly, we can’t promise people certain seats for another season, I can almost be sure of that.”
Cowling also confirmed on Col U TV last night that he is hopeful Colchester will tie up two new player signings today.
The U’s have already snapped up experienced midfielder Cole Skuse from Ipswich and more signings are imminent, as they build their squad for the next campaign.
Cowling added: “It will mean that we’ve got a fair bit of business in fairly early for us.
“We’re often a little bit later for this, because we’re not always top of players’ priorities.
“We’re getting some business done, Hayden (Mullins) is doing a good job and we’re getting a few over the line early which is nice to see.”
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