The Geelong Football Club's been forced to throw open the gates after a power outage caused chaos  at the Cats' first home game of the season.

The blackout shut down ticket scanners and also left the Brownlow Stand in the dark.

Thousands of Cat fans were left in queues outside the gates and wondering what had happened until word filtered down the line of a generator failure.

Ground staff had to resort to the old fashioned method of checking tickets by hand, to ensure fans gained entry in time for the pre-match entertainment.

The club says it did the best it could under the circumstances and will work to make sure there's no repeat in the future.