Report: Miami Heat to eliminate paper tickets next season
By Wes Goldberg
The Miami Heat will only allow entry into AmericanAirlines Arena for games and events via digital tickets on mobile phones.
The Miami Heat will be the first NBA team to eliminate paper tickets, allowing attendants to enter games only by using a mobile phone, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell.
While the use of mobile phones to enter sporting and concert venues has become more popular and practical, this is a rather radical change targeted at the scalping market. Previously, you could print off a paper ticket and (illegally) sell it outside the arena. Re-selling that ticket digitally is a more complicated process. The change, in theory, should curb such behavior outside AmericanAirlines Arena before games.
Teams have taken measures in the past to curb paper tickets in the past, such as attributing fees to season-ticket holders receiving traditional paper tickets, or rewarding mobile ticket users by entering them into contests for grand prizes. The phrase “carrot or stick” is often used when discussing how to motivate attendants to use mobile tickets, but the Heat are simply taking a regulatory stance.
Scalping and ticket fraud has long been an issue for the NBA and other professional sports leagues. The NBA has made it a point to get in on the secondary ticket market (think: “The Andersons got tickets to the game?!”) and is trying to regulate it more.
The big ticket sites offer digital tickets that can be scanned at the gate via mobile phone. Fans can save the cost of ink and paper, but they better make sure their phones are charged before getting to the game.
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Pushing attendants to use mobile tickets is a crucial step in teams seeking to further regulate the secondary ticket market. The Heat are the first team to take the added step of eliminating paper tickets, but they won’t be the last.