MHSAA teams with GoFan for digital ticketing during playoffs

In the changing times that 2020 has brought forward, the Michigan High School Athletic Association continues to change as well.

This week the MHSAA announced, in partnership with GoFan, a new touchless, digital ticket offering for the 2020 football playoffs, as well as postseason events for volleyball, soccer and cross country.

With challenges in regards to limited capacity in stadiums and gymnasiums, social distancing, and other statewide regulations, the MHSAA is looking at new ways to get fans in the stands safely. Digital ticketing is one of those approaches in hopes to provide a faster and safer process into games.

“In the last month as we approached tournament time, we knew we had three things we wanted to accomplish with this decision,” MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl said.

“First, we wanted as little interaction and contact at the gate as possible in regards to people having to handle cash or paper tickets. Second, it allows for easier contact tracing of anyone in attendance in case a positive case occurs at a game. Third, it had to be convenient for the fans and the schools. We didn’t want to create a greater workload for everyone beyond the challenges every

one has been dealing with already. GoFan has met all those concerns.”

GoFan launched in 2015 and is currently in partnership with 36 different high school athletic associations around the country through its phone application and website. The model is similar to what fans have used in more recent years to attend collegiate or professional sporting events.

“We’ve been partnered with the (MHSAA) for the past three years on the digital ticketing side of things. As everyone knows, 2020

sparked a lot of change. Especially in regards to liveevent gatherings,” BJ Pilling, CEO of GoFan, said. “With capacity limitations and contact tracing being important, this was an opportunity for us to collaborate with their staff on executing ticket sales for hundreds of sporting events over the next few weeks. To be part of that plan is an honor.”

Capacity for football playoff games is limited based on stadium size, but no game is able to have more than 1,000 people in attendance currently. For ticket priority, a school can set up different groups and different priority lists for ticket purchasing. Parents of athletes will receive notification of a special redemption code that will allow them to buy up to four tickets prior to them being made available for the general public.

Schools can expand the purchasing eligibility every few hours to include more people before the general public option begins at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays. Any tickets that have not been purchased by home and away schools are available to the general public at that time.

“It’s tiered in a way that schools can set their pecking order in terms of who should have first opportunity to buy the tickets,” Uyl said. “GoFan has really built an app that is very user friendly.”

Each individual is able to purchase up to four tickets, but will need to provide contact information upon purchase for contact tracing purposes. If someone that purchased tickets can’t go, they can transfer the tickets to another person, but that person will have to fill out the contact information as well for contact tracing.

“It’s a logistical challenge to have 256 different hosts of varying capacities and making sure the right people get the opportunity to attend the games,” Pilling said. “The (MHSAA) did a great job in preparation of all this and having an idea, weeks out, about what the execution would look like.”

Uyl wouldn’t commit to digital ticketing in the postcoronavirus world.

“We are paying close attention to how it works out with these fall postseason events. I know some people just don’t like doing stuff on their phone. There are oldschool people that want to plunk their cash down at the gate,” Uyl said. “COVID has forced us to operate a little differently, but we will take feedback and see how this process goes when deciding if it is something we will continue to do.”

For a full list of state championship events on how to get tickets, visit the MHSAA website.