The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Move to digital tickets divides fans
LINCOLN, NEB. >> John Fey was rummaging through a box of old scrapbooks this summer when he came upon a couple lost treasures.
At the bottom of the box, detached from the page they were once glued to, were ticket stubs from Nebraska’s 1971 “Game of the Century” win against Oklahoma and the Cornhuskers’ 1984 Orange Bowl loss to Miami.
Those games are still regarded among the greatest in college football history and those stubs were proof Fey was at both.
“I had flashbacks. Bigtime flashbacks,” the 68-year-old from Plattsmouth, Nebraska, said.
For people who keep them, ticket stubs can spark memories of being at a big game in person, cheering on a favorite team or, for a guy like Fey, nearly total recall of time spent with friends and family at a stadium. They are treasured mementos — and they are not going away even as schools transition to cashless transactions for everything from game tickets to food and drink.
Nearly every Football Bowl Subdivision school has gone to mobile ticketing this season, but in a spot check of 30 schools, only Notre Dame said it would refuse to print tickets for fans requesting them.
The other 29? They are willing to print, though most do not publicly offer that option. Illinois was among schools that did give fans a choice, and 74%
picked paper. That figure was 64% at Nebraska and 50% at Texas A&M.
Customer service is critical during the transition, said Maureen Andersen of Palm Springs, California, president and CEO of the International Ticketing Association industry group.
“I have to presume a college-aged kid doesn’t want anything printed ever, so a push on digital is going to be a completely different conversation than it is with an alumnus who graduated college in 1942,” Andersen said. “It takes constant communication and working through a process and talking to the fans. You get pushback when you do an all-or-nothing proposition.”
Traditional tickets on cardstock began fading away in the last decade
with the advent of printat-home tickets and digital, or mobile, ticketing systems where fans have a barcode on their smartphones scanned at the gate.
Digital tickets are ecofriendly, a safeguard against stolen or counterfeit tickets, and they can be transferred online from one person to another. They also allow schools to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in mailing costs. In the pandemic, cashless transactions are more popular than ever for safety reasons.
Nebraska fan Tom Reischlein of Omaha said he has used mobile ticketing at venues with no problem but chose paper football tickets at the suggestion of his wife, who said they might want them as a souvenir if they see a memorable game.
“I think it’s a good idea that they’re kind of easing into it and giving people the choice,” said Reischlein, 58. “I’ve seen a lot of the older folks, either they don’t have a cell phone or they have trouble navigating through it when there’s a bunch of people lined up behind them.”
Another Nebraska fan, Katherine Crawford of Lincoln, said her family has owned season tickets for three generations and will go digital this year.
“We had a huge discussion,” said Crawford, 27. “My grandma was very much against it, but she’s not a huge technology person so it would have been quite difficult for her. My mom and I agreed it would be a nice option to have, a convenience.”