As European football clubs have shifted increasingly to digital ticketing solutions over recent years, home fans have become accustomed to the simplicity of selecting their favourite seats for a game and snapping them up online or via mobile apps.
Traditionally, though, such a luxury has not been afforded to away fans. As the 2023-24 season kicks off, many still have to embark on an outdated purchasing process of queues and calls that is universally considered to be convoluted for supporters and costly for the clubs involved.
However, new technological developments are bringing an end to such frustrations.
Digital fulfilment
Ticketmaster’s Away Ticketing solution provides a platform for digital fulfilment, benefiting both home and away clubs, as well as fans.
For the host club, which has traditionally had to produce and courier thousands of tickets to the visiting team’s front office, digital fulfilment delivers significant cost savings in terms of printing, postage and staff overheads. Meanwhile, for the away club, avoiding manual fulfilment brings clear operational efficiencies.
In addition, with digital away ticketing, fans receive their tickets immediately, rather than waiting for the uncertainty of a delivery through their letterbox in the days before a big game.
“In recent years, ticketing has been transformed with the introduction of digital ticketing technology. Fans can now have tickets at their fingertips faster than ever through their Apple or Google Wallets, official club apps or via email.” Ticketmaster Sport, Client Account Manager, Sean Tucker said.
“Away Ticketing allows clubs and venues to maximise the use of this technology to become 100% digital, saving time and money with allocations no longer required to be printed on hard stock.”
Optimising matchday income
Digital ticketing naturally extends the on-sale period, with fans able to buy tickets closer to kick-off, given that they do not have to allow a buffer of several days for postage. This inevitably drives sales – and the bottom-line benefits of optimising away fan allocations cannot be ignored for clubs up and down the football ladder, given the value of ticketing revenue derived from visiting supporters.
In the English Premier League, for instance, a minimum of 10% of a game’s ticket allocation – or at least 3,000 seats for stadiums with a capacity of more than 30,000 – must be set aside for away fans. In the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, teams brought an average of more than 1,500 fans with them for every away game during the 2022-23 season. On average, across 23 home league games, a total of about 34,500 away fans visited each Championship stadium.
Moreover, according to the UK-based Football Supporters Association, away tickets typically cost more on average than home seats, further amplifying the value of travelling fans in the matchday income stakes.
Trialling the tech
Ticketmaster reached out to its client base to explore which clubs would be willing to trial the technology at the start of the 2022-23 season. Clubs were then guided through the process of creating ticket templates for print-at-home and digital tickets, and implementing access control rules to ensure concession tickets could be identified and away supporters could enter stadiums via specific turnstiles.
Home and away clubs have always worked together on supplying tickets to away fans. However, with Ticketmaster’s Away Ticketing digital solution, there is no requirement for both clubs to be Ticketmaster clients.
Quite simply, clubs just need to exchange test barcode files that comply with the home stadium’s access control system. Once implemented, the same process can be re-used for the next meeting between the two teams at the stadium.
Having trialled the technology last season, clubs like Peterborough United of EFL League One in English football’s third tier are planning to use the solution for all matches throughout the new campaign.
“The set-up for the visit of a non-Ticketmaster club was minimal,” said Chris Brewer, Peterborough’s head of media and ticketing. “The main priority was making sure the away club’s barcodes, created on their own ticket system, were able to be imported and scanned on our own access control system. Everything went as smoothly as it could have done and saved lots of time for both clubs.”
Collaborations
Rob Noble, Head of Supporter Services at Lincoln City, another League One club to have trialled the solution, used the example of working last season with a non-Ticketmaster client, to offer a cross-platform method for selling away tickets. The two clubs collaborated to ensure e-tickets could be purchased through the other club’s existing ticketing system, but would also work across Lincoln’s access entry system.
“Following the usual information sharing of the stand layout to aid the set-up and then subsequent testing we were in a position to go live with sales,” Noble explained. “On the day, one simple file upload and we were all set to welcome away fans and their digital tickets. Ingress was very smooth with no issues and the whole process was easy and straightforward with benefits for both clubs, the supporters and the environment.”
With sustainability an increasingly prominent factor in sports club operations, it is inevitable that the transition towards paperless ticketing for all fans will win broad industry support. Furthermore, with the Away Ticketing solution giving clubs the opportunity to work together for the benefit of their own operational efficiencies – as well as the fan experience – Ticketmaster believes word of mouth will inevitably lead to greater interest in the technology over the 2023-24 season, and beyond.
“This is a game changer for all clubs looking to save costs and bring their away allocations fully into the digital age,” said Chris Gratton, Ticketmaster Sport UK’s managing director. “It benefits the clubs both at home and away, and importantly, it benefits the fan who can immediately see their ticket saved directly to their phone.”