The NFL’s New England Patriots will launch a secondary ticket exchange in partnership with Ticketmaster for the 2018 season that will allow fans to securely buy and sell tickets through Patriots.com.
With the service, which bears a liking to ticket site Stubhub, Ticketmaster has been named the official ticketing marketplace for Patriots tickets at Gillette Stadium.
In a statement, Patriots Chief Marketing Officer Jen Ferron said the renewal marks the Patriots’ effort to transition to digital tickets, a move that professional sports teams across the U.S. are beginning to make in an effort to reduce the use of paper tickets and lure fans into their respective digital ecosystems.
With the Patriots’ digital tickets, fans can buy and sell tickets via Patriots.com/tickets and then download their verified tickets to a digital wallet, where they can manage them and gain access to the stadium using their mobile device.
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“Ticketmaster’s technology enables us to offer more tickets than ever before to our fans and we’re excited to roll out this new platform when the 2018 schedule is announced,” Patriots Chief Marketing Officer Jen Ferron said in a statement. “Our renewed partnership also means that Patriots fans can reap the many benefits of Ticketmaster’s innovative digital ticketing system for all upcoming home games.”
Ticketmaster and the NFL extended their partnership (which goes back to 2008) last year to pave the way for the first league-wide fully digital ticketing system in sports.
As part of that plan, Ticketmaster will power the NFL’s official ticketing marketplace for primary and resale tickets, provide season ticket holders the exclusive ability to resell tickets directly through season ticket account manager, and deliver real-time insights and analytics to fans.
SportTechie Takeaway
When the NFL first announced its expanded partnership with Ticketmaster in October, it painted the deal as one that would increase safety and reduce ticket fraud. While that’s true, mobile and digital ticketing also provides teams important data about the people who attend their games. They can then use that information to tweak the kinds of products, services and promotions they offer to fans.
A number of teams have been experimenting with mobile-first ticketing programs. 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 Kansas City 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.