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Wanderers chief executive Neil Hart says a rewards scheme could be considered next season if the club remain in League One.
Tickets for the play-off semi-final second leg at Barnsley will go on sale soon, and the reduced 2,000 allocation is expected to sell out in a matter of minutes.
The number is already less than half of what was given to Bolton for the 3-0 win at Oakwell in January – and promoted the Whites to follow suit, offering only the top half of the South Stand for Saturday’s first leg.
The rush is bound to leave some supporters disappointed, and there have been several occasions this season when supply has way been outstripped by demand.
Hart says if Wanderers were to introduce a points system or similar to enable regular attendees to get tickets first, there would be a consultation with fans groups and the BWFC Supporters Trust.
But he feels it is an inevitable move if Ian Evatt’s side do not win promotion.
“If we remain a League One club I think it needs to be introduced,” he told The Bolton News.
“There is a disparity between the size of our fanbase and the allocations we receive at this level of football, and I am sympathetic, myself and the board talk about it all the time, it really irks us when we get 1,200 tickets and they are sold, sometimes in less than 10 minutes.
“It is amazing, of course, but I get where supporters are coming from when they voice frustration.
“I think he problem goes away in the Championship where there will be bigger stadia. Myself and Danny (Scott) have already got together and talked about what that might look like.
“We have talked to various supporter groups, trust bodies, and there is a mixed view. Some say there needs to be a loyalty scheme that looks like ‘this’ and others say we don’t need it.
“My view is that it would be prudent for this club to have a loyalty scheme anyway and it is there if we need it.”
More than 20,000 fans have now bought tickets for Saturday’s play-off semi-final first leg, and there is optimistic talk within the club that a sell-out could be on the cards.
Hart praised supporters for remaining patient through the last few days during busy spells, which mirrored those in the build-up to the Papa Johns Trophy final at Wembley.
“We had pinch points, as we have had this week, where there is a huge amount of traffic, online and in person at the ticket office. It has caused us some issues,” he said.
“The supporters have been amazing and they just have to bear with us.
“This week the ticket office staff worked all day Bank Holiday Monday, the queue was up to Middlebrook almost all day.”
Hart has also pledged to improve the online ticketing system in time for next season, recognising some of the issues that has cropped up in the last few days as season ticket holders tried to include ‘networked’ supporters in their order.
“We are working with Ticketmaster and had a couple of meetings with them,” he said. “They are one of the best in the business, and they do tickets for major events up and down the country, concerts, events, football, numerous Premier League clubs use them. They have also done all our Pink concert stuff, and that has been seamless.
“But as a football club we need to invest, whether it is booking hospitality, tickets or whatever – we want to evolve it. Supporters will see an improved service next season, even though it is still the same basic online process.
“The complications come when you are adding on people on your network, and I get that the website needs to be more clear and simple in that regard. That is what we are looking at.”
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