E-ticketing expanding at Agawam, West Side varsity gamesDate: 2/21/2024 WEST SPRINGFIELD — Fans of international music stars or professional sports teams have been getting e-tickets to concerts and sporting events for years. Many local high schools are now plugging in to the technology, starting a slow transition to having fans purchase their tickets online.
The athletic program at West Springfield High School recently joined the program, testing the waters by offering an e-ticket option, phasing it in toward the end of winter for basketball games and wrestling matches.
This spring, WSHS will offer e-ticketing for boys and girls lacrosse, and then all sports, like soccer and football, in the fall.
West Springfield Athletic Director Glenn Doulette expects some resistance at first from people who are familiar and comfortable with buying tickets with cash, credit cards and debit cards.
“I expect some backlash because change is sometimes difficult. Some people aren’t used to technology and have difficulties with navigating a computer or getting e-tickets. They’ll still have the availability to buy a ticket the old-fashioned way,” said Doulette.
“In the long run, I think it’s a good use of technology,” he continued.
High school sports programs are increasingly converting to the non-cash system because for years, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has been mandating electronic ticketing for playoff games.
The high school athletics program in Agawam began testing the new way of paying at the end of last year’s football season, said Athletic Director Karen Gomez.
“It was pretty good. The fans enjoyed it. They liked the ability and ease of making purchases,” she said.
Gomez told Reminder Publishing her program has now broadened e-ticketing to include boys and girls basketball and co-ed wrestling. She expects the service to attract more fans to games and matches.
“That’s our goal, to try and get it out there. The younger generation just comes in, they drop their phone on the card reader and their ticket is purchased. A lot of people don’t carry cash. They come in looking for an ATM and we have to tell them we don’t have one,” said Gomez.
Schools making the switch to e-ticketing are scoring benefits that include increased safety because there is less cash on hand. Lines are shorter and people are getting to their seats more quickly because of advance ticket purchases.
Doulette is already looking forward to next year’s rivalry football game, when he believes fans will be giving thanks for not being stuck in long lines.
“Thanksgiving is a huge venue for us. With e-tickets, those lines would pretty much be non-existent,” he said.
Several e-ticket vendors are offering their services in Western Massachusetts. Agawam and West Springfield are both using GoFan. The platform allows fans to purchase tickets online at GoFan.co, or download an app and use their mobile phones to conduct the transaction.
Some athletic programs are also posting QR codes on their social media platforms, posters inside the school and flyers at the games. Using their mobile phones, fans can scan the QR code and buy their tickets.
“It’s no cost to the school. I’m not paying the vendor anything, but the vendor will be getting money based off the transactions,” said Doulette.
GoFan charges a $1 service fee for each ticket purchased. While high school athletic programs aren’t being charged to set up and operate the system, local schools won’t receive any portion of the service fee, either.
There will come a time when purchasing tickets to a game will be totally electronic. But for now, fans will still be able to make their purchases onsite using debit or credit cards.
“We’re going to have some kinks as we get this system up and running. Hopefully, by next fall, we might be totally e-tickets,” said Doulette. “But if we still have some hiccups, we’ll wait a little bit longer.”
Concessions are not affected by the conversion to e-ticketing. Spectators in West Springfield and Agawam will still need cash or credit cards to pay for food and drinks.
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