Technology

Chicago Fire scrap season-ticket cards due to tech problems

Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire have scrapped season-ticket cards in response to three years of fan complaints.

Fire said season-ticket holders this year will have the options to receive hard stock tickets, print off PDF versions of tickets at home or scan them on phones using Ticketmaster’s ‘My Account’ portal or the Chicago Fire Mobile App.

The season-ticket cards were introduced in 2014, with fans able to scan them on entry to the team’s 20,000-capacity Toyota Park.

However, Fire’s senior vice-president of ticket sales, Mike Ernst, said the technology proved to be untrustworthy as it often failed to sync with Ticketmaster’s platform.

In addition, Chicago Fire fans who scanned into games using the card were handed a paper ticket that would feature a promotion and would also be used to verify a user’s seat location inside the stadium, which proved to be a fan annoyance and used a lot of paper.

Ernst said the team is encouraging fans to embrace digital tickets with new features in its online ticket management tool. These include a new exchange powered by TicketsNow.com.

“We’re trying to make sure that we kept up with the times when it comes to how people are buying and selling their tickets,” Ernst told Chicago Business. “With the secondary market now more prevalent than ever, it’s important to folks that they’re able to take advantage of pricing up or down when they’re reselling.”