Technology has been evolving steadily at large-scale events over the past ten years as new technology becomes more available and affordable.Many of these events have started to embrace digital tickets, pre-purchasing drinks and food online and ‘at event’ apps with running times and important event information.Smaller events however, such as local footy games, have tended to stick with the ‘tried and true’ cash on arrival and paper records. This is largely because these events are often run by volunteers who do not have the capacity to upgrade digitally or they are free events. There has been little requirement or incentive to change.Enter the global pandemic of 2020. This year we have seen sports and events as some of the hardest hit industries, due to the gathering restrictions and lack of ability to manage COVID risk. Now that these events are slowly recommencing, there are important new requirements to ensure they are managed in a COVID-safe way including contactless entry, social distancing and strong contact tracing capability.We are now in a position where many smaller-scale events, such as local footy clubs, will be required to upgrade their technology in order to meet these requirements.There are many reasons why upgrading technology is beneficial, even without COVID-safe requirements.<ol><li>It provides more security – without the need for money to change so many hands it vastly reduces the risk of money disappearing, either intentionally or not.</li><li>It saves time – no need to manually reconcile unnamed bank transfers into your account or manually manage lists of attendees.</li><li>You can keep better track of money and patrons – going digital means you know exactly who has paid, when and how much. You can also build in a function to record contact details of your patrons if necessary.</li><li>Better crowd management – as well as managing patron density, you can also remove instances of people sharing tickets and getting free entry by passing memberships through the fence.</li></ol>Before COVID came along and made it essential for these clubs to move into the digital space, there were already many reasons to do so.I saw a need for this several years ago. I have been playing local footy in Melbourne for 25 years and one of my bugbears was having to stop at the petrol station on the way to the game to withdraw cash to pay for entry. There is also no ability to track which members have arrived at the event. Most clubs have a little membership card for the member to show at the gate, risking the potential for the card to be passed through the fence allowing others in free of charge.Now in most cases we are talking about small clubs that rely on game day fees and fundraising to cover basic costs. The last thing they need is people gaining free entry and losing out on part of their revenue, particularly after the year we have just had.Digital ticketing can solve these problems, as well as help your club meet COVID-safe regulations with managing patron density, contactless entry and contact tracing. Since events have recommenced in other parts of Australia, we have been able to help sports get back up and running in an affordable way that meets new government requirements.Some major ticketing providers in Australia charge very high fees which could cost customers upwards of $4.95 on an $6 ticket price. This fee structure is simply not justifiable. It is no wonder small clubs are nervous about implementing digital ticketing, but of course not all ticketing providers operate in this manner.INTIX is a small, Australian-owned, ticketing platform that only charges a small percentage of the entry fee to cover the services they provide. For example, an $8 entry fee may only become a $8.50 ticket instead of a $14 payment.We also provide the ability to sell tickets online and at the event using the same platform. This is a scalable solution that can be used for local sports, club events or large-scale sporting events such as State and National Grand Finals.Victoria has endured a particularly tough year. I live in Melbourne and run a small business so I can truly empathise. For the best part of a year we have stayed inside, socially distanced and isolated. Now that we are finally starting to open up again we want to stay open, we want to work, we want to play footy, netball and cricket, we want to see our friends and families and we want to do it in a safe way. A digital ticketing platform is one of the key measures that will help keep Victoria open safely.For more information visit <a href="https://www.intix.com/sell-tickets">https://www.intix.com/sell-tickets</a>

A need for digital ticketing in local sport