The Arizona Cardinals are taking action this season against ticket fraud by giving their season ticket holders electronic cards, rather than hard copies.
With digital tickets, fans can sell and transfer tickets through the Cardinal’s app. Representatives for the team told 12 News that this way, they can prevent the sale of phony or photocopied tickets. A new statement on the team’s site explains the switch to “SafeTix” this season.
“This new technology allows smartphone access to digital tickets via the Arizona Cardinals mobile app,” the statement reads. “SafeTix offers an encrypted barcode that automatically refreshes every few seconds. The tickets also include NFC technology that will allow fans to enter venues through a simple “tap and go” experience at venue entrances. These enhancements protect against tickets being screenshotted or photocopied and sold multiple times by unscrupulous resellers.
“SafeTix will allow fans to arrive at a show or game with confidence that their tickets are always 100% authentic and will dramatically reduce the amount of ticket fraud event owners are dealing with on event day.”
However, some fans are not keen on the switch to digital and are skeptical about how the switch will work at the University of Phoenix Stadium. One season ticket holder, Duane Woods, told 12 News that he doesn’t know how the card will work if someone is selling. This year, he won’t be able to attend three games with his son and wants to be able to sell tickets.
“Do I take their card?” he asked. “Am I going to be swiping their card with my I.D.? Is that going to work out like that? That would be my concern.”
Another longtime fans and season ticket holder, Jason Brody, noted that while the digital cards seem more convenient, they could end up causing more of a burden. He said that there could be various bad scenarios with the switch to digital tickets, explaining that “phones die, service doesn’t work in stadiums sometimes, you lose your phone, you leave it at home, someone steals their phone.”
The Cardinals aren’t the first to make the move to digital ticketing; the Detroit Tigers announced the switch to mobile ticketing this January, and a handful of baseball teams already implemented the mobile-only ticketing system including the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves.
