Goodbye to paper?

Abstract: More sports fans are now using plastic cards, mobile phones, and even watches and key fobs, to access stadia and arenas instead of paper tickets. But does electronic ticketing necessarily signal the beginning of the end of the traditional paper ticket or will the sports industry need to be format-neutral? Andy Stevens reports.

The sports consumer is undoubtedly enjoying the convenience of the increasing numbers of electronic ticketing channels via which they can book and pay for tickets for their favourite events. But now the customer experience has been further enhanced with the fulfilment of tickets being integrated into the e-ticketing value chain. Fans no longer have to wait for tickets to be mailed or queue at the box office to buy or collect tickets, as tickets can now be uploaded to a plastic card, printed on a home printer, or even sent to a mobile phone via an SMS or other messaging service.

As well as having more satisfied customers, sports promoters are benefiting in other ways from the new ticketing formats. Rather than being a simple receipt of purchase, today’s tickets are data carriers that enable sports teams, venues and events to track their customers’ purchasing habits and record valuable marketing information. Venues can be more efficiently managed as the access control data that is processed via a barcode or chip is recorded in real-time and is much more accurate than the traditional ticket stub count.

Electronic ticketing was initially developed with swipe cards that incorporated a magnetic stripe, but this format has now mostly been superseded by barcodes that can be read with a scanner. A more recent development has been the introduction of contactless or proximity cards, which are enabled by near field communication (NFC) or radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. These cards were originally developed for ski passes as they are more convenient than swipe cards, but they also offer much faster processing speeds and have since been adopted by a number of public transport network operators. The technology works by a receiver located at the access control point sending a signal to transponder inserted in the card, which is then returned to the receiver to verify authentication. Thomas Wiedner, vice president of access control specialist Skidata, is confident that contactless ticketing will continue to increase its share of the market: “RFID communication is one of the key future technologies. It will be an upcoming trend – maybe not in 2007 – but it is something which really gives the key information and can be used in the venue, outside the venue, and on public transport.” The transponders do not necessarily have to be inserted into a card, and have already been integrated into key fobs and watches for use as tickets at sports events.

Reference: Stevens, Andy (2006) Goodbye to paper? Sport Business International. December. Issue 119. p50.

Secondary sales, auction and futures

Abstract: Secondary ticketing is now an established part of the North American sports industry, with an annual market that has been valued at in excess of $10 billion. Andy Stevens reports on the launch of Euope’s first comparable service.

This season, FA Premier League teams Chelsea FC and Manchester United FC have launched the first comparable service in Europe, which is intended to open a new market that the services’ provider believes may be worth up to $5 billion a year.

The secondary ticketing service offered by Chelsea FC and Manchester United FC is operated by Viagogo, a company created by StubHub’s co-founder Eric Baker. He explains the rationale behind the clubs’ decision to offer the service to its customer base: “The reason that clubs like Chelsea and Manchester United have embraced secondary ticketing is that there are a number of benefits that accrue directly for the club when they’ve got this kind of system in place. Let’s look at everyone in the equation. First off, for the season ticket holder, you know you’re going to actually get some cash back for your seats, so you’re very happy. For the fan who purchases, they can get access to a ticket they couldn’t otherwise gotten. Sometimes the game will be sold out but they’ll see hundreds of empty seats on television. They would have sat there, and now they can. And from the team’s perspective, first and foremost, an empty seats spends no money on beer, concessions or parking. So there able to get more per cap revenue.”

Reference: Stevens, Andy (2006) Secondary sales, auction and futures. Sport Business International. December. Issue 119. p49.