We all know that the NBA and NBA franchises are usually at the forefront of technology and innovation and more willing to experiment with new things.
The Miami Heat are following that trend by becoming the first professional sports team (probably any team for that manner) to completely do away with the printed paper ticket for the 2017-18 season, instead only allowing mobile entry.
Here is the report from Darren Rovell:
“The Miami Heat announced Thursday that fans who attend home games this upcoming season will only be able to get through the gate with tickets on their phones.
In doing so, the team becomes the first in the NBA with mobile-only entry. Other teams, like the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Cleveland Cavaliers, have mobile-only ticketing, but they permit fans to use a driver’s license and credit card to get in.
Fans who walk up to Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena on game night will receive Heat tickets on their phones, even though they are at the box office.”
This new rule obviously alienates the older demographic that may not be very mobile or tech savvy, and it takes away the souvenir aspect of the ticket which can be a cool memento for people (I for one have boxes of tickets), but I think this is a good move overall.
It is 2017, any person that is purchasing tickets for an NBA game should have a mobile phone and the ability to use it as their ticketing device for the game in order to save a ton of paper and help the environment.
It will be interesting to see how this works in action though as always in technology there could be some glitches and frustration with fans trying to get into the arena.
This is a step forward though and who knows maybe in 10 years a paper ticket will be obsolete.
