by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Many relationships were renewed with the City of Jacksonville during Florida-Georgia Weekend, and one that might not have gotten as much fanfare was the return of Ticketmaster’s paperless ticket system.
Rock group AC/DC brought its “Black Ice World Tour” to town Friday night and it requested that 20 percent of the tickets for the show be sold using paperless ticket technology. This technology was first used by the company in Jacksonville in 2008 during the Tom Waits “Glitter and Doom Tour” and it is utilized at the request of the artist.
“The technology was developed to stop the secondary market for ticket sales,” said Kevin Doherty, client services representative for Central and North Florida and Southern Georgia. “The artists want to make sure the fans get in the front row and not have that taken away from them by a scalper inflating prices.”
The paperless ticket system consists of a customer purchasing tickets online where they receive a confirmation number, going to the event with the credit card used to purchase the tickets, going to the door with everyone in their party and getting their credit card scanned at the door. The customer service representative scanning the card then prints out a receipt with directions to the seats.
“(Processing the paperless customers) went extremely well,” said Bob Downey, general manager of SMG, operator of the Arena. “We had extra staff on hand to help with any problems that might have occurred.”
This was the second time the system was used in Jacksonville and this time it was used on a limited basis for seats on the floor and in the EverBank Arena Club.
“These were the seats deemed to be the most valuable to scalpers,” said Downey.
SMG and Ticketmaster teamed up to make sure that any anxiety customers may have had about going to a concert without tickets in their hands was unfounded. Credit card scanners, printers and staff were provided by Ticketmaster.
“Ticketmaster brought eight people and we had extra box office staff on hand to operate a help desk to solve any problems that may have arisen,” said Robin Timothy, assistant general manager at SMG and Arena manager. “People showed up to the Arena ready for the process, they had their party together and Ticketmaster did a good job of informing them of what the requirements were.”
Paperless tickets were available at the Jacksonville show, which hosted 10,600 people, as well as Atlanta, Greensboro, N.C., New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma City, El Paso, Texas, and Orlando.
“It worked well for the concert at our venue,” said Downey. “But I don’t know how well it would work at a bigger venue, like the Florida-Georgia game.”
Doherty countered that the system has already been used at major concerts including rock music artists U2, Metallica and Bruce Springsteen who play to huge crowds all over the world.
The system may been developed to make sure that fans get the best seats at reasonable prices, but there will be problems to work out. One scenario that could present a problem is the ticket bought as a gift.
Would the person receiving the gift have to bring along the presenter in order to get into the show?
“The credit card used to purchase the tickets must be present when the person arrives at the door to the event,” said Doherty.
There may be bugs to work out still, but Downey doesn’t see the system going away.
“It is the way of the future,” said Downey.
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