For games deemed a “Blackhawks Classic,” such as the one featuring the jersey retirement of Chris Chelios on Feb. 25, an augmented reality clip can be accessed via the ticket.Courtesy of Chicago Blackhawks
Sports fans can hold an old ticket stub and immediately teleport. They’ll travel back to a game from their past, see the faces of people they went with and remember specific stat lines from players who ignited their fandom for life.
Digital ticketing has made the fan experience so much more convenient, but it’s also led to the near extinction of the physical ticket as a souvenir. The Chicago Blackhawks are attempting to solve that with their new Blackhawks Classics program.
Starting this season, Blackhawks fans can buy commemorative physical tickets for $10 from home games they attend. The program, developed in partnership with fan experience company Eventshop, also features an augmented reality component. Should something significant happen on or around the ice, the franchise may deem a game an official “Blackhawks Classic” afterward, where the physical ticket will house an augmented reality clip.
So far, the Blackhawks have labeled three games with that distinction: their Oct. 21 matchup, featuring a wrister from No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard for his first home goal; a hat-trick performance for Jason Dickinson in an overtime win on Nov. 24; and most recently, the jersey retirement for franchise legend Chris Chelios on Feb. 25.
Matt Gray, Blackhawks vice president for strategy and analytics, said the team is consistently seeing 0.5% to 1% of attendees (United Center hockey attendance is roughly 20,000) buy physical tickets from games in this first year. That figure balloons to 10% to 12% for significant games. Both the Chelios retirement and the season opener eclipsed that 10% threshold, the team said.
Courtesy of Chicago Blackhawks
“I would imagine that for playoffs and Stanley Cup Final — hopefully when we get to that point — we’re going to be challenging 15 to 20% of attendance,” Gray said.
Blackhawks Classics tickets feature a small QR code on the back, allowing users to view the associated AR moment on the front through the Eventshop app. For example, the Chelios retirement night ticket features a mix of the hall of famer’s speech, overlayed with scenes of him interacting with fans and walking on the ice with his mother.
The ticketing program blossomed out of consistent fan feedback, followed by market research last summer by Gray and his team. Their discovery? The sports industry had dabbled with commemorative ticketing, but nothing stuck out as a clear model. The Blackhawks, Gray felt, had a chance to pursue something unique.
The Blackhawks eventually determined it crucial to provide these tickets only to in-person attendees for many reasons. One, that decision eliminated operational hassles like pre-printing tickets or overloading the United Center box office with fans. But also, Gray said the team interviewed “best-in-class collectors” who stressed that the ticket value hinged on scarcity. “There’s very few, if any, things that you can collect that you actually have to be able to prove that either you were there or you know somebody there or you purchased off the secondary,” Gray added.
Gray discovered Eventshop at Wrigley Field while attending a Morgan Wallen concert in June, where scanning a QR code started a journey to merchandise that featured photos from that night’s concert. That instance became an entry point for Eventshop to finally make its first step into sports.
“I hate saying it just felt like we stumbled into it, but it feels like we built a platform that this just worked perfectly with,” said Eventshop CEO Spencer Combs.
The startup — based in Nashville with 13 full-time employees and unspecified support from a small seed and recently completed Series A funding rounds — was co-founded by Combs, a former tour photographer who worked with Garth Brooks and others. Often, he saw a handful of photos shared via social media while the rest of the images from the tour were shelved. “Fans want these memories,” Combs remembers thinking around 2017. The thought wouldn’t go away.
Courtesy of Chicago Blackhawks
Eventshop launched in 2022 after a year of building the platform. Its first activation came on a tour of singer Kane Brown, giving fans access to download photos from the night (individual artists determined if photos were free or required purchase, Combs said). Now, Combs estimates, the company — which has the slogan “Bring the moment home” — has supported more than 1,000 shows, with offerings expanding to create merchandise items featuring images from concerts as well as branded partnerships.
The Blackhawks commemorative tickets are Eventshop’s first AR rollout, tech that was tested with a VIP experience with Dude Perfect last July. Eventshop supported Wallen with AR late last year as well.
Eventshop is built for arenas and large venues, Combs said, supported by the constant suggestions he heard about the platform being ready-made for sports. Combs said the transition into the industry featured a learning curve regarding the number of parties involved in events — ticket providers, leagues, merchandisers, brands, etc. — as well as the year-round commitment to a marketing initiative (as opposed to the nightly turnover of touring performances). Combs shared that Eventshop is talking to “a bunch of sports teams across every league right now,” and the Blackhawks have fielded a ton of industry interest regarding the program as well, Gray added. Both parties declined to share the financial structure of the partnership.
Combs recalled an early conversation he had after starting Eventshop, speaking with a sports fan whose father had recently passed. He shared with Combs that he wouldn’t put a limit on what he’d be willing to spend to buy something commemorative from their last sports outing together.
That sentiment made it clear to Combs just how important a photo or a simple sports ticket can be.
“To me, that was the heartbeat for all of this,” Combs said.
