Ticketek struggles to deal with demand as fans flock to buy Gather Round tickets

Gather Round tickets for club members went on sale this morning, selling twice as fast as last year causing Ticketek's website to struggle to cope with the demand.

Members of all 18 AFL teams lined up to get their seats, resulting in online queues of tens of thousands and error messages on the website.

Hundreds of fans opted for in-person purchases instead, with some even arriving at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre's Ticketek office as early as 5am.

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"Get the best tickets, we're exactly where we always sit so I'm really happy with that," Power fan Kerry Coleman said.

However, the process was not without its challenges.

"It's worse this year without a doubt," fellow fan Paul McMahon said.

"I got here at the same time last year and I was through in half an hour ... it's been nearly two hours and I'm probably 50 people away from getting my ticket ... very frustrating."

Fans were reassured that there was no issue with ticketing systems, and that any issues were due to the sheer weight of numbers.

More tickets were sold in the first three hours today than were sold in the first seven last year.

A third of all Gather Round tickets – some 89,000 – were sold by mid-afternoon.

General public tickets go on sale at 10am tomorrow.

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.