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The Death of the Paper Ticket For Sporting Events (axios.com) 94

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Over the last decade, tickets have transitioned out of the physical realm and, like so many other aspects of our lives, gone digital. Most are now purchased on and delivered to a mobile device, then scanned at the stadium. From a report: Tickets were once mementos, collected like photographs and saved in scrapbooks. They are now barcodes on our phones -- convenient as heck and impossible to lose yet, sadly, often forgotten about the moment they're scanned. The percentage of transactions on mobile vs. desktop on ticket marketplace SeatGeek since 2012, per the company: 2012: 7% mobile, 93% desktop; 2013: 27% mobile, 73% desktop; 2014: 43% mobile, 57% desktop; 2015: 52% mobile, 42% desktop; 2016: 58% mobile, 42% desktop; 2017: 62% mobile, 38% desktop; 2018: 65% mobile, 35% desktop; and 2019: 68% mobile, 32% desktop.
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The Death of the Paper Ticket For Sporting Events More

The Death of the Paper Ticket For Sporting Events

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  • Print the thing out, have them scan that, if it's that important to you.

    I wish my life were apparently as problem free as the submitter's for this to be a concern.

    • Welcome to 2019 where every whiner has a blog. Want to read mine? I just posted something about how Whole Foods was out of the naan bread I like.

      • Your whole foods carries naan?? Wow, and I felt lucky when our local 7/11 started serving slurpies..... I'm going to have to blog about my Whole Foods never having naan. I'll tweet and fb the link out in a bit! Please click like on my Whole Foods never had naan post and share with your friends!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      Print the thing out, have them scan that, if it's that important to you.

      I wish my life were apparently as problem free as the submitter's for this to be a concern.

      I'm more concerned about the reduced transferability of electronic tickets. A paper ticket can be transferred countless times, while an electronic ticket can be tracked, limited, and of course the service can skim off the top with every transaction. As for reducing fakes/copied tickets, that doesn't work. Was just speaking with a coworker yesterday who went to one of the college football championship games last weekend and had bought his tickets through Stubhub. A couple minutes after getting in his sea

      • I've never had that experience with digital tickets. Not sure how it could happen, either, unless we're talking about the human element; someone conned them at the gate with bum tickets.

        As with all procedures, the weakest link is probably the human element.

        • Anyone who trusts a fly-by-night startup company for financial transactions deserves what gets served up.

      • I've had the same thing happen with paper tickets. Why? Because the bar code and paper tickets are just output from the same broken database and buggy ticket handling software. The final ticket form has nothing to do with duplicates being generated. I thought this was a techie site.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tsqr ( 808554 )

        If you want to transfer your ticket to someone else, send them a screenshot of it.

        I use Fandango to buy movie tickets. When I view the ticket after purchasing it, I take a screenshot, because I can't rely on having a good data connection at the theatre and the Fandango app is sometimes cranky about displaying it anyway. I've never had a problem getting past the ticket scanner using a screenshot of the ticket.

        • I thought this is what everyone did. I take screenshots of all barcode-based things and use the screenshots because then I know I have a local copy.

          I do the same thing with QR codes for TOTP registrations too. That way I can transfer the TOTP info to a new phone.

          • First Bus in Glasgow has crappy app that plays video along the qr code and the driver scans the video with eyes. So no screen shot, at least I donâ(TM)t know how to make a screen clip.

        • If you want to transfer your ticket to someone else, send them a screenshot of it.

          I did this a couple years ago for a Packers game. It worked wonderfully. This year for a Chiefs game, it was no longer possible. In fact, although it could be put into Apple Wallet, on Android the only way in was via the Ticketmaster app. Pretty soon, it's going to require a live internet connection and when the massive crowds at the game over-stress the cellular networks, there's going to be 20,000 people who can't get in because there's no backup system.

          • Buy an $2.99 5 min wifi pass then.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by taustin ( 171655 )

              Or don't bother with events that go to that much effort to rip people off for every last penny they can.

          • there's going to be 20,000 people who can't get in because there's no backup system.

            20,000 extra ticket sales at the gate. And the downside?

            You're scamming sports fans. Nobody loses.

        • I bought some tickets on Stubhub and they insisted that a phone would be needed to actually use the tickets. Stubhub delivered the tickets in the form of easily transferred PDF files.

          The need for a phone (or other mobile device) was true because, at the venue, they refused to scan the PDF files that we had printed out.

      • I have not had this problem with the cancer of ticketing: TicketMaster. A friend wants to sell me a ticket to a hockey game, he punches in my email address and I get an email with the QR code. I give him cold hard cash (ok, I send him money via Zelle, usually). No money goes to the TicketVampire.

        Now, I can see this being a problem selling a ticket to someone you don't personally know or trust. Their verified ticket transfer procedure does cost money (and a heck of a lot), but at least it prevents the origin

      • Reducing the ability to transfer tickets is one of the major reasons for switching to electronic tickets. As things stood with paper tickets, actual fans were unable to buy affordable tickets; they were all being bought up by automated scalpers as soon as they became available and resold at higher prices. Electronic tickets, in contrast, are often non-transferable; they can only be returned to the venue. An honorable venue will resell them at the same price; a dishonorable one will charge more.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      FFS, we carry around miniature high quality cameras everywhere we go now, and incessantly take pictures and video. If, like the article's author, you pine for your lost childhood in the previous century, as you say, print it out.

      • If, like the article's author, you pine for your lost childhood in the previous century, as you say, print it out.

        You can print it out, but don't expect the paper ticket to get you into the venue. Venues now refuse to scan paper tickets.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by taustin ( 171655 )

          Those are venues that don't want my business. There's nothing I want to see that much. Hell, I don't even have a smart phone, and no reason to get one.

        • I have not seen a single place where this is the case. They want the QR or Bar code on the ticket. They don't care how they get it.

          By your logic, how would they tell the difference between a screenshot of the code vs using whatever ticket app?

          • I have not seen a single place where this is the case. They want the QR or Bar code on the ticket. They don't care how they get it.

            This happened to my wife last week. The people on the door refused to scan the paper copies. I don't think it is a technical issue so much as a policy issue.

    • Depends. With the trend of downloading a single MP3 instead of buying a full album, there is a loss of album art.

      I know the Grateful Dead used to have some awesome designs on their tickets, and I know of people who have massive collections of them. I know that other bands have included some reference to their album cover, etc. on the ticket artwork.

      Just another sign that collectively we're throwing away some of the Humanities side of what makes us human in exchange for quick/easy/convenient. Sure it may

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Ok Zoomer. If you think that a printout of a eTicket is the same memento as a commercially printed ticket stub, all I can say is you're a special kind of stupid even among zoomers. So just fuck off and enjoy your empty existence. KK little baby?

      • Triggered you, did I?

        More proof, if proof were needed, that fragile morons can be of any age.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rlwinm ( 6158720 )
        I'm an old fart and to me they are exactly the same: something for the garbage. Maybe I just don't get it. But most people have far more pressing things in their lives than scrapbooking some paper so it can be thrown out when they croak. To be honest, the older you get the more you want to throw that crap out now to start downsizing to save the effort of the relatives cleaning out your house when you pass.

    • Re:Is this really a problem? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Bitbeard ( 1665499 ) on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @03:05PM (#59505278)

      Print the thing out

      Problem is, you CAN'T. I bought tickets from one of the major US ticket sellers and was surprised after checkout I didn't get a pdf or similar. I of course thought, "oh, maybe they take a few minutes to generate, so my email confirmation will include them". WRONG. No pdf there, either. After an eternity with their support people they admitted they didn't warn buyers on their website that "electronic tickets" means you can only use them in their app.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jbengt ( 874751 )

        . . . they admitted they didn't warn buyers on their website that "electronic tickets" means you can only use them in their app.

        Great, a "ticket" that relies on a charged phone battery, a live internet connection, and a buggy vendor's app that might crash.
        That's why I refuse to buy my monthly ticket for the commuter train through the phone app. It's a pretty regular occurrence that somebody on the train will have problems with their phone or the app. The only problem I could have with the paper ticke

        • Great, a "ticket" that relies on a charged phone battery, a live internet connection, and a buggy vendor's app that might crash.

          ...that will also data mine you as much as possible and phone that information home so it can be sold.

        • Great, a "ticket" that relies on a charged phone battery, a live internet connection, and a buggy vendor's app that might crash.

          That is exactly true. My every experience with the AMC Theatres Stubs app went just like that. The app does not cache tickets. So almost every time I walked into the theater building, I'd lose cell signal and was unable to show my ticket. Then other patrons were blocked while I spent a couple of minutes connecting and logging in to their WiFi. And going to the concession stand, same thing - open the app only to find no cell signal and fiddling with the phone for two minutes to get a QR code. And that

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Agripa ( 139780 )

            That is exactly true. My every experience with the AMC Theatres Stubs app went just like that. The app does not cache tickets. So almost every time I walked into the theater building, I'd lose cell signal and was unable to show my ticket. Then other patrons were blocked while I spent a couple of minutes connecting and logging in to their WiFi. And going to the concession stand, same thing - open the app only to find no cell signal and fiddling with the phone for two minutes to get a QR code. And that's when their app is actually working - I've gotten everything ready to show and then the app crashed. Horrible experience at a place that's supposed to make you forget about the world.

            I foresee a joker with cell phone and Wifi jammers sitting in the lobby watching the show.

      • I'm not social at all if I can avoid it, so I wasn't aware this was a "thing".

        I wouldn't expect that trend to continue, in all honesty. They're making it too difficult, too many things can go wrong, that ticket takers at the gate will be able to be scammed into letting people in because the app "isn't working right" or some such.

        I figure what they'll settle on is a barcode and an ID ( to prevent resales, or at least control them ).

        • They're making it too difficult, too many things can go wrong, that ticket takers at the gate will be able to be scammed into letting people in because the app "isn't working right" or some such.

          No, they won't let you in. If you want to go, yes you need to make sure your phone is charged.

          Fraudulent/duplicate tickets is a much bigger problem for them than people who don't have mobile phones.

          • Fraudulent/duplicate tickets is a much bigger problem for them than people who don't have mobile phones.

            Kinda a silly statement, as that's ridiculously easy to prevent with digital tickets, whether or not they're on your phone or printed. Each ticket is a uniqueID which, once used, is no longer valid.

            I figure the reason they want to keep tickets on the phone is to control resales.

            • Fraudulent/duplicate tickets is a much bigger problem for them than people who don't have mobile phones.

              Kinda a silly statement, as that's ridiculously easy to prevent with digital tickets, whether or not they're on your phone or printed. Each ticket is a uniqueID which, once used, is no longer valid.

              Not true. The ticket scanners have to connect with a central system to record scans. Some facilities are very large, have lots of scanners, and intermittent wifi. Think multiple square miles and over a hundred scanners. Scanners may cache lists of tickets and only down/upload scans every couple of minutes.

              One failure mode is scalpers produce 50 copies of the same ticket and coordinate to all hit the gates at close to the same time. Yes, this happens.

              Another mode is they don't coordinate, so now you end up w

    • Print the thing out, have them scan that, if it's that important to you.

      ... get to venue and find that the doormen refuse to scan paper tickets and you can't get in.

      You think that is ridiculous? Well it almost happened to my wife last week. Fortunately, she also had the pdf on her phone, ready to be scanned.

    • I found having a paper ticket more convenient. When I've had a digital barcode it was always in email, which meant that if I bought the ticket a month or two earlier that I had to scan through the old mail to find it, and I needed internet access much of the time (I regularly turn off cellular data to save costs). If I go to a ticket booth at the movies then I can pay cash instead of using some shady and insecure online payment.

    • Print the thing out, have them scan that, if it's that important to you.

      I wish my life were apparently as problem free as the submitter's for this to be a concern.

      it's not that it is a "problem" but truthfully - I still have baseball tickets in a scrapbook from the 80s through now from games I have gone to and it is just a cool piece of memorabilia to look through.

  • Paper doesn't use a battery (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Grim Reefer ( 1162755 ) on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @02:20PM (#59505064)
    I fly a fair bit and only rely on my phone for a boarding pass in case I don't have a chance to print one. What happens if my phone dies or the battery runs out? Granted, I don't update my phone enough for it to be one that thieves would want, but if it gets lost or stolen it seems like it would be an unnecessary hassle to me.

    • Um, then you tell the gate attendant or ticketing agent and they look you up on their computer and print out a ticket for you.

      • Um, then you tell the gate attendant or ticketing agent and they look you up on their computer and print out a ticket for you.

        That means I have to get to the airport sooner it I need to go to the counter. I also don't want to be the asshole that holds up boarding if I need the gate agent to look up my boarding pass. But the number of times I've had to wait for people in front of me to find their boarding pass on their phone should make me not worry about it. I guess it's too much of a hassle for them to be ready when the get to the gate.

        • Really, someone will always be "that guy" and if you fly enough, eventually you'll be the one to make a mistake and be "that guy" yourself.

          In my case, it was catching a connection in Taipei. For some screwed up reason, the airport is set up such that we had to leave the secure zone after arriving and then be re-screened on the way to our connecting flight. Not knowing that Taipei was set up that way, I was unprepared for another screening at that time and in the shuffle, stuffed my (paper) boarding pass

        • But you still have to go to the desk an hour to two before boarding, to load your baggage into the hold.

          • But you still have to go to the desk an hour to two before boarding, to load your baggage into the hold.

            Only if you are checking your bags. Unless I have to be somewhere for more than 4 or 5 days I pack everything carry on.

            • You travel for reasons that don't require you to be there for more than a few days? Isn't that a bit environmentally insensitive? As well as a waste of time - you spend 2 or 3 days travelling each way to spend a day or so doing [whatever].
    • What happens if you -don't your boarding pass and lose it? Same thing. If you travel that much and are that reliant on your phone, bring a small external battery. $10 on Amazon.

      • What happens if you -don't your boarding pass and lose it? Same thing. If you travel that much and are that reliant on your phone, bring a small external battery. $10 onÂ

        I have an extra copy in a folder with my receipts too. A battery doesn't help if the phone does or I lose i.

    • I use to fly a fair bit, and relying on paper for the boarding pass has caused issues, because it can get damaged very easilly, as well it being light could be quickly loss if put in an open bag.

      Most Airports have charging stations

      • I fly pretty much every other month and I go paper every time, and I have never had an issue. I have seen a lot of people struggle to get their phones to scan, however. Sure, if you cram it in your pocket and crumple it up, it doesn't scan. Fold it in half and put it in a shirt or back pocket and you're fine.

      • I used to fly a lot years ago. I was on 17 different flights in one week once. But typically between 4 to 8 normally. So anything that saved me time and hassles has become habit at this point.

        Depending on the airport you may or may not be able to use the charging stations as they're all in use. Some outlets are so worn that you have to hold the plug to keep it from falling out or won't make contact unless you hold the plug the entire time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eth1 ( 94901 )

      You fly a "fair bit" and don't keep a printed copy of your record locator somewhere?

      Every time I travel, I bring a printed "cheat sheet" with address/cust. service phone/confirmation number for all hotels, flights, etc.

      • I don't know if you are replying to me or someone else. But I started this thread stating that I use paper and only use my phone in the case I don't have a chance to print a boarding pass ahead of time.

        Actually I normally print out two copies of my hotel reservation, rental car, itinerary, and boarding pass(s). I keep one copy on me and another set in a folder in my computer bag. In the past I've had to cut it pretty close to make my flights and hate having to go into panic mode. Air travel is a big enou

    • Well.. what happens if your paper ticket gets stolen?

      THAT is definitly anything that is different between phone and paper ticket.

      I'm rather worried about dead battery and stuff that can't happen to a piece of paper.

      • Well.. what happens if your paper ticket gets stolen?

        First, why would anyone steal a boarding pass they can't use? I hear about phones getting stolen fairly frequently, paper boarding passes , not so much. Regardless, I keep a copy on me and a second copy on my computer bag. Since my laptop is more of a mobile workstation and weighs 8lbs. and another 2 for the power supply, along with other crap my bag it is probably close to 30lbs. So no one is going to snatch it and run without me catching them. I don't think I'll have to worry about losing both paper copie

  • If I cannot get a ticket in the mail, I will never go

    I am sure all kinds of spyware comes with this "Ticket on a Phone" service. Not that it matters anyway since smart phones are nothing but spyware.

    • Yeah, you wouldn't want the ticketing companies to track you and find out where you live. Better to have it mailed to you. Derp.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      If I cannot get a ticket in the mail, I will never go

      Most services will gladly mail you a ticket, for an extra $25 fee. That is of course on top of taxes, the mandatory service fees (since they are the only place you can get the tickets), etc.

      • Most services will gladly mail you a ticket, for an extra $25 fee. That is of course on top of taxes, the mandatory service fees (since they are the only place you can get the tickets), etc.

        I think the last one I had mailed to me from Ticketmaster, the supreme fee company...was only like about $5 extra to mail me a real ticket.

        For the last swing of the Elton John tour, so, wasn't a cheap ticket by a long shot...

  • A friend of mine has season football (US football) tickets, and they come as snazzy heavy paper tickets, almost like cardstock, with holograms on them. She pins them to the bulletin board in her office after the game.

    • Football is a max of 10 games so they can afford to make the physical tickets look nice and hold up. STHs in many cases do get perks like that whereas your average joe doesn't.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sconeu ( 64226 )

        When I was a STH for the LA Kings, my tix were e-tickets only, and I had to either use the "Flash Seats" app, or my STH card.

        No dead trees whatsoever.

  • Not me... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @02:32PM (#59505124) Homepage Journal
    I get paper tickets, in case I need to resell them in case I can't go....
    • I hadn't thought about the implications for scalping and resale; that's a good point.

    • Paper tickets aren't always available. Sometimes it's paperless only and the barcodes aren't available until 24 before the events starts.

      • Paper tickets aren't always available. Sometimes it's paperless only and the barcodes aren't available until 24 before the events starts.

        I've yet to be to a concert that didn't offer paper tickets.

  • Millenials killing this too? If a millenial can kill it, it should die.

    • Re:OK Boomer (Score:4, Funny)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @03:24PM (#59505336) Homepage Journal
      K-O Millenial

    • Millenials killing this too? If a millenial can kill it, it should die.

      My daughter and I have this banter going where she calls me boomer and I call her pre-boomer. I call millennials pre-boomers because they're just a few decades away from becoming all the things that they despise about boomers and there's nothing that will prevent that transformation mandated by human nature. As with all previous generations, the pre-boomers actually believe the delusion that their generation is the first to be disadvantaged by older people and that they won't do the same to their children

  • The 22nd century Ken Burns will not be able slowly pan and zoom into photographs, reading in a grave voice, "... I endeavor to serve my flag with honor, but mental images of little Jonathan and Sweet Emily tempts me to desert my post and come home like a homing pigeon ... William Cecil Jones... second company, twenty seventh Vermont Volunteers..."

    There ain't no letters actually written on pieces of dead trees scratched with dyed/pigmented liquids.

  • That's why they have collectors tickets (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday December 10, 2019 @02:47PM (#59505192)

    For at least one concert I went to last year, you had the option of buying purely ornamental collectors tickets.

  • If electronic tickets will make it harder for scalpers to resell, then good!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      It depends which ones you are talking about. If it's the guys standing on the street corner, yeah, electronic is going to make their life miserable. I honestly don't mind those guys. It's the e-scalpers that really piss me off. Farms of people buying as many tickets as they can, just to turn around and re-sell them on the ticket exchanges. Fuck those guys.

  • I recently went to a sporting event using e-tickets for the first time. Shortly after I was inundated with sporting spam. I think I want paper back.

  • I am a long time subscriber of an NHL team. They made one mandatory exhibition game e-ticket only this year. I was furious. There are certain people like me who do not install ANY apps on our smartphones for security and privacy reasons. The idea that I HAVE to install an app irritates me. We ate the cost of that exhibition game. Thankfully they still use paper for the regular season. But I already told them I will not re-subscribe if they go electronic for all. E-tickets solves some problem they have; it

  • Been a season ticket holder for a long time. At first it was books of paper tickets, as expected.

    Then they moved to a "Season Ticket Holder card" for season ticket holders, still individual printed tickets otherwise. Yeah, you could buy them via the website and get PDFs for single tickets. The STH card had a single barcode. Obviously if you copied that barcode, you could get in all season. I "leased out" one of my season tickets to someone else, gave them the card, but kept a photocopy of the bar code. Any

  • It's all about killing the secondary market.

    Venues, artists/teams, and TicketMaster feel they need a cut of the revenue if you choose to resell your ticket.

    When you resell a physical ticket, the venue/Ticketmaster/artist/team doesn't see any extra money (the scalper gets their cut), but the risk if that you might be buying a fake or used ticket.

    With e-tickets, you can "resell" them as 100% genuine tickets and Ticketmaster is the scalper instead. I suppose that becomes paying for a service, but I t

  • The last (and truly LAST) time I bought tickets from Ticketmaster years ago, they were charging a $17 "convenience fee" for digital tickets you could print yourself. Of course, they would also mail you paper tickets in the post for free. Naturally, I got the real tickets. It's not like digital tickets would get you through the check-in line any faster, since the real tickets have barcodes.

  • My local sportsball team did that recently. As I recall, they said they'd have one season where they would still accept printed tickets, but there would be an extra fee for that. But the next season, you would not be permitted into the stadium unless you had a smart phone with their software running on it. It's a good thing that I'm not into sports since their software won't run on my flip phone, but sports is just one step along the way. How long will it be before people won't be permitted to get a dri

  • Newer apps rotate the QR codes every couple of minutes. If you print it out, by the time you get to the venue it won't be any good. Yes, they like that you now have to go through them to transfer/resell the ticket. But it also prevents the legitimate problem of scalpers selling the same PDF to 50 people.

    That's a real problem for them to solve. Either your system doesn't identify the duplicates and extra people get in, or it does identify the duplicates and you end up with 50 people in your customer service

  • If a venue really wanted to eliminate the secondary market, the solution would be to eliminate tickets completely. Tie them to the credit card that was used to pay for the ticket. You present the CARD at the entrance to get in, they read the chip and match your info against the purchase database.

    There are some problems. You wouldn't be able to buy a ticket without a credit card, but that's already nearly true for large venues. (In theory you can buy a ticket with cash at the box office, but they're all sold

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