Schools going cashless for football tickets
You will not need to hit up an ATM on your way to Stamford High football games this season, but you will need your phone.
It was announced this week that all ticket sales for the Black Knights’ home football games will now be cashless as Stamford joins a growing list of schools across Connecticut to do so.
Like many schools, Stamford began using a cashless ticket system for home basketball games last winter and it went well enough that the school decided to do it for football games as well.
“We used this for basketball and it worked great,” Stamford athletic director Chris Passamano said. “Most of the FCIAC is doing this already, any FCIAC or CIAC playoff game is cashless. You can’t go to a concert or college or professional sporting event without using your phone. It is how it is done now and how it will be done in the future.”
Using an app called Ticket Spicket, Stamford fans can scan QR codes on their phones at the gate or purchase tickets ahead of time either on their phones or computers and present those at the gate.
Most of the schools in the FCIAC now have cashless options with Stamford, St. Joseph, Westhill, Danbury, Norwalk, Staples, Trumbull, McMahon and Wilton using Ticket Spicket. Ridgefield, Darien and New Canaan are using GoFan, the ticket outlet used by the CIAC for tournament games.
Greenwich, Ludlowe, Warde and Bridgeport Central are still cash gates.
In the SWC, nearly every school is using GoFan with a few others likely moving to it soon. The SWC schools will still accept cash but are encouraging fans to go cashless.
“Almost all SWC schools are using GoFan as their online option for tickets,” SWC Commissioner and Weston Athletic Director
Mark Berkowitz said. “Online, Kolbe and New Milford are not committed to that yet but the other 12 schools are still allowing cash, but also accepting and encouraging online ticketing through GoFan. New Milford and Kolbe are both in discussions to bring GoFan as an option, but do not have approval yet to do so.”
SCC commissioner Al Carbone said some SCC schools such as West Haven, Xavier and Hand have cashless options but also still take cash.
In the ECC, Ledyard, Waterford, Fitch, St. Bernard, East Lyme and Lyman Memorial all use GoFan and Bacon Academy is exploring going cashless, according to ECC Commissioner Jim Buonocore.
The concession stand at Boyle Stadium will still take cash, though some school concession stands have begun taking Venmo and other online forms of payment.
Passamano, who has two teenagers of his own, said kids in the high school rarely have cash and use Apple Pay or Google Pay for most transactions.
“It’s the way of the world. My kids don’t have debit cards, everything they do is with Apple Pay,” Passamano said. “The QR code will be up in multiple locations, people scan it, click Apple Pay and walk in. It will make entry to games much easier and with far fewer lines.”
With nine FCIAC schools currently using Ticket Spicket, Stamford fans can use the same app for its road games at Danbury and Trumbull as they use for home games.
Stamford’s home opener will be at Boyle Stadium Saturday, Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. against Manchester.
Stamford will host five home games this season, all on Saturday afternoons at 1 p.m.