Events

Sky Stadium and Ticketek celebrate Ed Sheeran success

Featured image credit: Doc Searls/ CC BY 2.0/ Edited for size

Sky Stadium (pictured), a multi-purpose sport and entertainment venue in Wellington, is celebrating hosting its biggest ever crowd for a live performance, with last week's Ed Sheeran concert also becoming the first stadium event in New Zealand to be ticketed 100% in-app.

In-app ticketing meant that attendees could rely on a fully digital, app-based ticketing solution without the need for paper or emailed PDF tickets. The Ticketek solution restricted the delivery of tickets to app-only, which enhanced control and restricted resale by unauthorised sellers.

Shane Harmon, chief executive of Sky Stadium, said: “We couldn’t be happier with the roll-out for the Ed Sheeran concert. Hosting 48,000 concert goers and doing so using only in-app ticketing for the first time was a milestone on both fronts.

“We also recorded the fastest ever time for scanning fans into the stadium with 5,000 patrons entering every 15 minutes at peak times.”

The Ticketek platform provided customers, promoters and artists with benefits such as enhanced security features. The use of encrypted barcodes led to a reduction in ticket scalping and fraud, and also ensured that tickets ended up in the hands of genuine fans.

“In-app ticketing makes it significantly harder for scalpers and fraudsters and so we experienced a significant and welcome reduction in disappointed fans showing up with fraudulent tickets,” said Harmon.

Cameron Hoy, managing director of TEG-owned Ticketek, said: “When it’s done right, in-app ticketing makes it incredibly difficult to produce and sell a fake ticket. Ticketek has delivered improved ticket security and protections for genuine fans through the in-app approach. We’re definitely making inroads against scalpers who can have such an impact on genuine fan access to events.”

Sheeran’s sell-out concert beat the previous attendance record of 46,474, which was set by rapper Eminem in 2019.

Hoy added: “In app-ticketing also delivered fantastic improvements in getting fans into the venue with speed. Over 90% of fans were seated 10 minutes before Ed Sheeran took to the stage – a great result for all parties.”