[News] Flames introduce paperless tickets

[ken0042]

Just received this email from the Flames. Looks good!

Dear Ken,

Welcome to the 2013-14 Flames campaign!

We are pleased to tell you that final preparations are being made on your season ticket packages, with Xpresspost mailing to begin next week. Accounts being held for pick-up will be notified by email and voicemail when their ticket packages are available. You will notice a new look to your package this year, most notably your new Season Ticket Card(s). Your Season Ticket Card(s) replaces your traditional paper tickets with a user-friendly and innovative paperless ticketing system.

Flames President and CEO Ken King announced the new initiative to positive reviews at the annual Ticket Holder Information Sessions, held this past May.

Season Ticket Cards are a convenient and user-friendly alternative to the traditional season ticket. Each season seat will have a card associated to it (one seat = one card). Your new 2013-14 Season Ticket Card will also act as your discount card at all FanAttic locations.

In addition, you will continue to have access to “My Flames Account”, your online tool to manage your account 24/7, forward tickets online and print your tickets at your home or office with ease. The ticket forwarding and Print at Home features are free of charge; all traditional fees associated with these options have been waived.

*Please note - Ticket forwarding and Print at Home features will be activated on Wednesday, September 4.

We understand you may have questions on your new Season Ticket Card and paperless ticketing including how to use your Season Ticket Card, how to send tickets to others, and how to get paper tickets

COMING SOON:
ONLINE TICKET RESALE FOR SEASON TICKET HOLDERS
The introduction of paperless ticketing coincides with the introduction of another new ticketing feature for season ticket holders. In mid-October, we will be launching an online ticket resale system for season ticket holders. This system will provide season ticket holders with a safe and secure method to resell their season tickets online. More information on this innovative product will be sent to you in October.

[Pontine]

I just got this e-mail. Not sure how I feel about this yet.

Glad to see they're introducing the online ticket resale system. Offers another option to sell games .

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Pontine

I just got this e-mail. Not sure how I feel about this yet.

Glad to see they're introducing the online ticket resale system. Offers another option to sell games .

Which could quickly mean the only way to resell, no?

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Which could quickly mean the only way to resell, no?

Yeah, I think that is their point. Not sure, if that is a good thing or not either. Might as well have the team take their cut in the re-sale market too. But I've heard of other sports teams setting a minimum re-sale price to season ticket holders, and that's where it starts to get a little shady, IMO.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

Yeah, I think that is their point. Not sure, if that is a good thing or not either. Might as well have the team take their cut in the re-sale market too. But I've heard of other sports teams setting a minimum re-sale price to season ticket holders, and that's where it starts to get a little shady, IMO.

And how do you give your tickets to friends? Will they have to pay transaction fees?


And why am I so interested if I am not a season ticket holder and live in BC?

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

And how do you give your tickets to friends? Will they have to pay transaction fees?


And why am I so interested if I am not a season ticket holder and live in BC?

Transaction fees for forwarding tickets are now waived

[KevanGuy]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

And how do you give your tickets to friends? Will they have to pay transaction fees?


And why am I so interested if I am not a season ticket holder and live in BC?

They are waiving the fees to send to a friend. I'm not happy about the ticketless system, I would have preferred a choice to opt in or not.

[Laner99]

I hate this change. As a guy who uses a lot of tickets for work and gives a lot of tickets to clients I now have to either print out paper copies or deal with emailing tickets. I'd rather still be able to hand a customer a nice looking official ticket. Called me old fashion I guess.

[browna]

Meh about the single card, it will be useless to us. Paper tickets are of more use, like KG and the above poster, the physical ticket has its advantages, so it would've been nice to opt in or out.

We've got more in our group then we have seats.

The big news is the waiving of reprinting and forwarding fees.

Given that we've got some of the lowest price tickets, the flat, all encompassing $3.50 fee for reprinting of each ticket (since they starting charging that 5 or 6 year ago) worked out to 15%...the most expensive seat in the Dome, that charge was 2% or so. Two seasons ago we spent 80$ on forwarding fees...which exceeded the cost of 3 tickets.

[iggy_oi]

There is a link in the email that says you can still have your tickets printed by customer service, it says it is free this season but there will be a charge next season. Not sure how it will affect your ability to use the card or forward tickets.

[DeluxeMoustache]

So does this make scalping more difficult?

[TurnedTheCorner]

Where's diamond shoes whiner complaining about how the reason he pays for the season tickets is for the actual glossy tickets? I would love to hear his unique brand of bitching and moaning about this.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?p=2027463

[shogged]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

Where's diamond shoes whiner complaining about how the reason he pays for the season tickets is for the actual glossy tickets? I would love to hear his unique brand of bitching and moaning about this.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?p=2027463

yikes, 4 years later and you can't let it go?

[Fire]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

Where's diamond shoes whiner complaining about how the reason he pays for the season tickets is for the actual glossy tickets? I would love to hear his unique brand of bitching and moaning about this.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?p=2027463

Do all your posts have to be negative?

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by shogged

yikes, 4 years later and you can't let it go?

It just instantly reminded me of that thread. So, I guess?

Originally Posted by Fire

Do all your posts have to be negative?

That is correct.

[Bill Bumface]

I love this. The amount of times something has come up and it's been a pain in the butt to go home and retrieve a ticket have been many over the years. Now I just need to remember my wallet and that's it. Electronically transferring tickets to people is way easier for me anyway. No fancy ticket? Boo hoo. I'm giving you a freebie.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by Laner99

I hate this change. As a guy who uses a lot of tickets for work and gives a lot of tickets to clients I now have to either print out paper copies or deal with emailing tickets. I'd rather still be able to hand a customer a nice looking official ticket. Called me old fashion I guess.

Get some nice think paper stock and you should be able to print some nice looking tickets.

[calgarywinning]

You can opt in for paper tickets, but they'll likely not be as fancy as tickets from previous seasons.

Also, the fact that you can group move to a partner or sharer when they setup a flames account, means they are completely free to manage their own tickets which is very cool.

The online selling of games should be very interesting. Supply and demand should set the precedent, but as another poster said flames ticket management enforcing minimums would break the economic laws.

Having electronic cards is not as cool as giving a cool paper ticket(s) to a client or a friend. Also, they won't have a reference to where they sit if you get the card right back at the door. So less drinking for guests will be the norm. If you let them keep the card, then you can't drink as much as you will need to be sure to get the card back at the end of the game.

Also, whether you want to admit it or not, paper tickets are like a memento. I have some key games from the World Junior on my fridge, some key flames games, as inspiration or just for great memories. Those world junior tickets were beautiful with gold leaf, the countries flags and the size of them.

So in my mind the best would be to offer both from the outset. Each has their advantages, but obviously, the major upside of this is to control rip off artists selling duds.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by DeluxeMoustache

So does this make scalping more difficult?

No, the flames sucking make scalping difficult . Unless it's a Canadian team or a original 6 team I find it hard to believe most could get full face value let alone selling for profit.

[getbak]

I like that the email says it was announced to "positive reviews" at the STH sessions in May. I don't know about the other sessions, but I was the only one who applauded the announcement at the session I attended.

It's about time they did this. The next step is to make it accessible through their app so I don't even need to carry a card.