Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce is introduced to the fans before a game at Arrowhead Stadium. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
The Kansas City Chiefs plan to move to a mobile-only ticketing system at Arrowhead Stadium in the near future, mirroring plans from teams across professional sports that are experimenting with ways fans can use their smartphones rather than paper tickets to check-in to games.
At the National Football League’s annual meeting last week, Chiefs President Mark Donovan said the team was hoping to go to a 100 percent mobile ticketing model, which could roll out as soon as this upcoming season, according to The Kansas City Star.
This follows efforts made by the football franchise last season to incentivize fans to use their mobile phones rather than paper or printed tickets. Last summer, the Chiefs introduced Bud Light Game Day Pass, a mobile-only, paperless season ticketing program that was cheaper than traditional season ticket packages. The Chiefs’ mobile pass cost $200 per season and guaranteed access to all 10 home games, though the seats were limited to select sections in the upper deck. By comparison, normal season tickets, which offered set seats and could be printed, started at $380. This was similar to the New York Jets Boarding Pass, the NFL’s first mobile season-ticket subscription service launched last spring.
The Chiefs increasingly pushed fans toward mobile ticketing as the season progressed. By the second half of the season, single-game tickets to Chiefs home games were only distributed via mobile ticketing, as were playoff tickets for non-season ticket holders to the team’s home Wild Card game in January.
By the end of the season, Donovan said 40 percent of game attendees were entering with their phones instead of paper tickets, which enabled the team to test a mobile ticketing strategy ahead of plans for a much wider launch heading into the 2018 season, according to the Kansas City Star.
“It forced (fans) to adapt,” Donovan said.
SportTechie Takeaway:
Sports teams across professional sports have been experimenting with mobile ticketing as a way to reduce fraud, gather data on the people attending home games, and appeal to younger fans who are much more likely to download an app rather than print out paper tickets. The Dallas Cowboys were one of the first NFL teams to experiment with mobile ticketing for the 2015-2016 season and now run a mobile-first operation. Their efforts were later followed by the NFL’s Chiefs, Denver Broncos, and Atlanta Falcons. This year’s College Football Playoff national title game in Atlanta was a mobile-only ticketing event, powered by Ticketmaster.
Other professional leagues are incentivizing fans to use mobile ticketing. Major League Baseball and Tickets.com partnered this baseball season to enable contactless mobile entry for people with iPhones at a variety of ballparks. The National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers have incentivized mobile ticketing with an interactive fan selection feature that unlocks a 360-degree 3D view from the seat they are considering when purchased via mobile device. For this year’s National Hockey League playoff season, the Las Vegas Golden Knights are attempting to curb attendance of away-team fans at home games with a new “Knights Vow” digital ticketing program, which offers season ticket holders cheaper seats with the caveat that they can’t resell on StubHub.
