Top 10 Benefits of Digital Tickets for High School Winter Sports

The fall season is well underway, and soon it will be time for high schools to welcome fans back to winter sports. Now's the time to reflect on successes from the fall and consider ways to enrich the event experience.

Athletic directors are looking for new ways to innovate and continuously improve their programs. While paper tickets may be somewhat of a tradition, they have limitations that can hinder progress. By eliminating paper tickets and the administrative burden associated with them, schools can save time, increase revenue, and reduce the hassle for winter sports while building fan confidence.

Schools and districts throughout the country have realized the advantages of digital ticketing in the winter sports season and beyond. With digital ticketing, you can achieve these outcomes: 

1. Provide a more professional event experience.
   
   Your fans are likely accustomed to using digital tickets to attend professional basketball games and other winter sporting events. With digital ticketing, your fans can enjoy the convenience of buying tickets online rather than having to use cash in person. Fans can easily purchase tickets in advance and have confidence that they can attend the event even if it sells out. If you’d still like to provide the option for fans to purchase tickets at the gate, they can easily do so by completing a simple form on their mobile device.
   
   
2. Get hours back in your day.
   
   Ticketing is a major element of event management for winter sports, and it can be time-consuming – especially when you have so many other important aspects of your program to focus on. By providing your fans with the ability to purchase tickets online, they will no longer need to visit your school or office to buy tickets. You also won’t have to worry about staffing and managing in-person ticket sales in the days leading up to each event.
   
   
3. Simplify scheduling.
   
   The winter sports season is incredibly fast-paced, with so many different events to organize at once. Your calendar can fill up quickly with events for freshman, junior varsity, and varsity teams for boys and girls for each sport available at your school or district. To simplify this process, look for a digital ticketing provider that offers a full event administration platform to streamline your scheduling, seating charts, season passes, and other complicated tasks. You can easily upload your schedules and make adjustments as needed throughout the winter sports season.
   
   
4. Provide contactless payment and entry.
   
   As schools nationwide continue to navigate evolving safety protocols and consumer demands, digital ticketing can reduce excessive points of contact and provide peace of mind. Paper tickets change hands multiple times before being redeemed at the gate, and there’s no telling how many people have touched a dollar bill by the time it reaches the cashbox. With digital ticketing, you can eliminate the physical exchange of cash and expedite entry into events. Your fans can simply present their phones at the gate and press a button to validate and redeem their tickets.
   
   
5. Manage capacity.
   
   Depending on your school’s policies and the size of your facility, you may need to limit capacity at some of your events. With digital ticketing, you can easily set limits on the number of tickets to be sold, break down tickets by type, and encourage social distancing if needed by distributing tickets among different sections of the facility.
   
   
6. Stop counting cash and improve your bookkeeping.
   
   With so many events to manage during the winter sports season, the administrative work of reconciling accounts can get overwhelming. Counting cash is inefficient and often error-prone, and it can take up valuable time that you could be spending on other priorities. With digital ticketing, every transaction is instantly accounted for. Rather than frequently transporting significant amounts of cash to the bank, you can receive a direct deposit with the exact revenue generated from your ticket sales.
   
   
7. Be prepared for audits with transparent financial reporting.
   
   In addition to improving efficiency and accuracy in bookkeeping, digital ticketing can help schools and districts be fully prepared for audits. With event management software, you can easily run reports on demand and provide comprehensive data for audits and other financial documentation requirements.
   
   
8. Reduce personnel costs and increase revenue.
   
   Many high school athletic departments must operate with limited budgets and resources. With digital ticketing, you can lower your staffing costs for events, as you’ll no longer need people to sell tickets or count cash. You can also reduce costs for security personnel, as you won’t have to worry about monitoring cashboxes. Many schools and districts that use digital ticketing often discover increased revenue simply by eliminating accounting errors and discrepancies that can arise with cash. Digital ticketing and event management can also help boost ticket sales and build loyalty with your fans.
   
   
9. Maintain exclusivity with private ticket links.
   
   Just because your tickets can be purchased online doesn’t mean that they’re available to anyone. You can maintain exclusivity for your events with secure links created for specific groups, like family members of your players. You can also allocate a portion of tickets for away fans to protect your inventory and ensure availability for home fans.
   
   
10. Connect with your local community.
    
    High school events have the power to unify local communities through meaningful experiences. By simplifying the ticketing and event management process, you can make it easier for your staff to focus on building strong connections with your community. Your fans can enjoy a first-class experience at the events they love most while coming together to support your team.

With digital ticketing, you can transform the way you manage your events and provide a more professional experience for your staff and fans. To learn more about getting started with digital ticketing in the upcoming winter sports season, contact us for more information.