The AFL has announced plans for a ticketing data collection trial to support the Aussie rules league’s return to 100-per-cent capacity for matches in Victoria.
The trial, which will be conducted in round five, will require fans to enter the name and contact number of each person attending the match when purchasing tickets. Previously fans would only need to enter one person’s details in the attending group.
The aim is to assist the Victorian Government obtaining the contact details of all fans attending to the matches to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing if an outbreak occurs at a venue.
The ticketing data trial will be conducted across two games. The first is Carlton against Port Adelaide at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where Ticketek is the venue ticketing agent. The other game is between the Western Bulldogs and Gold Coast at the 53,400-capacity Marvel Stadium, where Ticketmaster is the ticketing agent.
AFL executive general manager commercial and customer Kylie Rogers, said: “We empathise that fans have had to change the way they may ordinarily purchase tickets and attend matches as we continue to navigate the pandemic and modify our behaviours.
“Encouragingly the data shows fans have quickly adopted the digital ticketing process, and we thank them for embracing the required change.
“The trial this week will assist us in getting back to 100% capacity as soon as possible and eventually seeing members get back to their beloved reserved seats in the stadium.”
The AFL estimates that adding contact details during the ticketing purchase process should only add 30 seconds to the total transaction time.
Last week, the Victorian Government announced seated venues that hold fewer than 1,000 patrons could return to full capacity from April 9.
Meanwhile, seated indoor and outdoor venues that want to host more than 1,000 people per area currently need to apply for consideration from the government under the COVID-19 events framework.
Events with more than 1,000 patrons that have been approved, such as AFL games, will need to remain at 75 per cent capacity.
Image: Charlievdb / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / Edited for size
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