UM Athletics to use Mobile/Virtual tickets for all events (Football season tickets sole exception)
From mgoblue (FULL LINK):
The University of Michigan Athletic Department will begin the transition to distribute event tickets through contactless mobile delivery beginning with the 2021 fall season.
Event tickets will be accessible to purchasers through digital wallets on smartphone devices in all U-M sports for which tickets are sold. Print-at-home tickets also will be discontinued.
Mobile tickets will apply to all sports except football, where returning season ticket purchasers will maintain the option to receive tickets either printed or via mobile device.
Coming this summer, the new Michigan Athletics mobile app will provide the easiest and most convenient way for fans to access their mobile tickets. The app will also feature quick access to event schedules, customizable push notifications, live and archived video and audio, podcasts and more. The free app will be available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Oh boy......
The Browns went virtual ticketing along with the rest of the NFL two years ago and to say it was a clusterfuck initially would be an understatement. Ushers who werent familiar with the scanning technology, phones not cooperating or hitting a dead zone and worst of all, direct sunlight on the screen which made it impossible to read or scan. We started getting to the gate about 45 minutes before they opened just so we could avoid the insanely long lines that always developed behind security & the ticket scanning.
Football will go there - it's the only way the University can ensure they get a "cut" of all tickets sold in the secondary market which is why the NFL went paperless. It's marketed as convenience but trust me, it's anything but that.
What are you talking about I always get such great cell service around the stadium on football Saturdays! /s
What could possibly go wrong?
Ask Colonial Pipeline folks...
Pro tip, pull up your ticket before you get to the event and screenshot it so you can just go to your pictures app to find your tickets. You don’t have to worry about wifi or cell service that way.
Bingo.
Now you just have to make sure your phone is charged to at least 10%.
Phone is pretty much useless around the stadium so I just put my in airplane mode. It saves the battery when it’s not constantly looking for a signal.
or if you have an iPhone, pull it up the night before and put it in your wallet app that comes on all iPhones. I'm sure android has something similar.
That might work, although I do wonder why you'd be able to do that but not have a print at home ticket. What if you take a screenshot of the ticket and then print out the screenshot?
Still though, it doesn't solve all the issues, such as if your phone dies/breaks/drops in a puddle, or if you don't have one to begin with. Nor does it address situations where the scanners go down, since there's no longer the tear-off ticket stub failsafe you have with paper tickets.
The new tech doesn't allow for screenshots to be taken. You can, but the ticket won't scan as they won't have QR codes to read. Much more secure, but will definitely cause problems for people who don't know any better.
Really? My tickets have been on my phone for the last several years. I've never had any issues with getting them scanned. As for the dead zone thing, take a screenshot of your ticket before you get there. Done deal.
I don't think many people have issues with the option to use digital tickets, and I'm sure most of the time they'll work just fine. I think it's moreso the move to require digital and eliminate paper tickets, which brings with it a host of logistical concerns.
Not to mention that some people just like the paper tickets; I think they're a really cool memento of my Michigan fandom. I have almost 30 years worth of ticket stubs, and for many games, since I don't collect programs, the ticket stubs are the only physical manifestation of my attendance at the game.
But you weren't born on the 1940's. There still are a number of people who are technology illiterate - but I guess this may reduce the blue hair quotient at the stadium.
I used electronic tickets for basketball with no problem, but can't imagine it working well for football
+1 for bluehair
It's creepy stuff like this that gives markets a bad name.
The lines to get in are so frustrating. I’ve experienced this time and again with the Detroit Tigers. It takes them forever to get someone through the gate with a digital ticket. Even games where only 15,000 show up it’s a solid 10 min of waiting.
How does this effect resale I wonder? Are the tickets easily transferable to someone else with the app? Or are my days of getting into the cupcake games for $20 or less over?
I never trusted the scalpers on the streets. Who now is going to trust them giving their phone numbers?
Not too bad depending on the app. My boss occasionally transfers me his seats if he's no going to the game (minor league hockey/baseball). Make sure the person you want to xfer to has the app, find their user name, send them the tix.
My only real opinion on this, is that if the AD is going to start pushing their mobile app, they need to do something about stadium cell service. I know I'm not the only one, but my phone essentially becomes unusuable in the Stadium/greater tailgating area from like an hour before and after the game.
Which isn't a huge deal, until I'm trying to pull up my mobile tickets and I can't connect to the app.
Other stadiums have free wifi to use, I think this is something the Athletic Department can easily take care of if we're going to be fully virtual ticketing
There are so many logistical reasons why this seems dumb. You name a good one, cell service. Even with their most recent upgrades, reception is spotty at best, completely unavailable at worst (to the point where I often times have trouble even sending/receiving texts during the game, let alone something that actually takes more than a kb of data).
Here are some others. What happens if your phone dies, or you drop it and it breaks, or whatever (or my original question, if you don't have a smart phone to begin with)? Are you just out of luck? What happens if the server goes down? Nobody gets into the game? I've been to games where the scanners haven't worked (typically due to rain), and they rip your ticket like the good old days. Can't do that in an all digital system.
Just a few examples, but they tout these types of all digital systems like they're the height of convenience, but in many ways they're anything but. Hadn't thought about it before but I agree with MGrowOld, this has to be about the money. They just want their cut...
Maybe they add tents/shade at each gate to protect from sun/rain. Maybe they have free charging stations around the venue. Maybe they have options for people who don't have smartphones.
It says in the coming months they'll have a full list of directions and FAQ's... I would expect all of these to be addressed there. No need to jump off the deep end here and say it's a bad idea. This is the new normal, for better or worse.
I'm assuming if your phone breaks they won't tell you that you can't go in.
What would be really nice is when an organization benefits from something they return some of the benefit to you. I get a break from my phone company for going paperless or for autopay. How about Michigan give something back if they are benefiting.
I'm still bitter that they do not allow you to bring in water bottles. I guess this is my old man "get off my lawn" rant - except I have replaced my lawn with hippie wildflowers.
If you download your tickets to your wallet before you arrive to the stadium/Ann Arbor, you don't need any connection to pull them up. If you have to search for your tickets, then you could have an issue.
Take away: put the tickets in your wallet when you get them, don't wait until game day
I would agree with this. I am completely on board with mobile ticketing because I hate having to fumble about for them at the gates, but the key to all this would be my ability to actually access them on demand. Call me crazy, but the stadium wi-fi / cell service occasionally has me wondering if they wouldn't just do better to put in some terminals so we could Telnet into some server on campus that would in turn pull up a cool monochromatic "card" on the screen with our row / seat / other information....confirmation IDs.....that kind of stuff. You know, like a computerized indexing system....but 1986 style. It might even be faster during certain points in the game.
How about using wifi tokens/tags that you load up at home and they are auto scanned on you way into the stadium. Someone who knows technology better could suggest something better I am sure. For being leaders we never seem to lead with great technology.
The upside is that the mouth breathing, skoal dipping truck drivers from Columbus would be flumoxed by this new fangled technology - making it hard for them to gain access.
Umm, maybe I'm missing something here, but since they're discontinuing print at home tickets, what are people without smartphones supposed to do?
stay in the 1990s?
Your grandparents hate you.
They’re dead, they don’t hate anything
The announcement said that football season tickets would still have a paper option for those who want it. So if they have season tickets, at least, they should be OK.
QR codes will be used for season parking pass holders at Pioneer. Apparently, no paper passes will be used.
Ah shit. I'm worried this means I won't be able to buy 30 dollar tickets off of students on facebook anymore. My brother and I still have our mcards and we are young enough where we pass as students
I for one will be attending games in person whenever possible. I will not be watching every game from the comfort of my couch. This will not save me all the trouble of traveling and spending an entire day in Ann arbor. I will spend money and deal with the hassle of pre and post game traffic. I will sometimes sit through numerous commercial breaks, spend too much money on concessions and wait in long lines for the restroom. I will not feel the need to tell you, anonymous message board reader, when I choose to watch from the comfort of my couch and whether or not that is the best thing to do.
I attended the season opener in 2019 and had the tickets on my phone. When I tried to pull them up at the gate I had all kinds of difficulty. After a couple of minutes of working with the usher to pull them up he finally just said go to go ahead and go to our seats. There were 6 of us.
Many people love physical tickets as mementos and it is way easier to give away physical tickets to friends, neighbors and family than moving a e-ticket.
So there is a solution for everyone - make tickets that thing that can't be duplicated - non-fungible token (?).
Each game has a fixed number of these (season ticket holders - with unique number and art).
Apologies ahead of time to the many experts in this type of thing on the board.
You can't put a QR code in a Superguide!
This has been in the works at Michigan for some time - heck, our interior defensive line and deep safeties went to a no-contact model for much of last season.
So no more games for the down in front crowd??
The more things change the more it seems no longer special. Whats worked for 45 years for 100k fans now they have to mess with it? I have a box with every ticket from every game I've ever went too. Some are in bad shape from being soaked from rain but they trigger the memories.
Yep, I always know when I come across my 1995 Purdue stub. What a disaster- lol.
right? i've saved just about every concert ticket stub, too - the stub from the replacements at the michigan theater in 1985 makes me smile every time i stumble across it.
Will they work on my Motorola Razr?
Those phones were cool when The Horror happened.
I'm thinking about what it would have been like pulling my phone out to scan my ticket at that Notre Dame downpour. That would have been quite the adventure.
So are the scalpers going to be standing outside the stadium with a handful of phones now?
No more scalping, just fake pictures of tickets. Buyers are going to get duped, will pay, but won't be able to get into the building. It's almost like someone would need to develop an app to scan the code to verify that it's a ticket that would be usable upon entry. Good luck with that.
It's touch and go entry (you can see from the image they provided), so fake pictures won't have a barcode and won't register any type of scan.
In theory, this will eliminate fraudulent tickets, but it will be a learning curve short term for people who have done it the same way for so many years. If you buy from someone off the street, they need to use the app to transfer the ticket to you so that you get the actual ticket and not just a screenshot.
I have to say I find it kind of odd that so many people seem to be against this. Almost everything has gone paperless at this point. Michigan Athletics is actually far behind here.
thanks, i hate it.
I’d say at the very least mail season ticket holder their commemorative tickets each user as a souvenir and thank you (will will eventually lead to a cost no doubt) then everyone needs to mobile scan.
also invest in some tech so students at least can connect the campus internet which will take 30k off the cell service and maybe I can send a text during the game.