If you've been to any sporting event lately, E-ticketing is the norm, and now that change affects parents at the high school level.
"HomeTown is the largest digital ticketing provider for K-12 and colleges across the country," HomeTown Vice President of Marketing Connor Thinnes says. "We're at over 3,500 high schools across the country now."
HomeTown Ticketing is one of several in the marketplace. Thinnes says it helps athletic directors and their staff, and some volunteers.
"They're thrilled with how efficient it makes all of the logistical aspects of running their events," Thinnes says. "It frees up their folks to do more of their specific jobs, as opposed to all the sort of extra things that they have to do with respect to counting cash (and) accounting for open cash boxes."
Prep sports have become a bigger business.
"It's such a large market across the country," Thinnes says. "I think it's hard sometimes for people to fully wrap their heads around just how many high schools there are that are playing football every Friday night, or participating in March Madness when it comes to playoff basketball."
And yes, cash can still be accepted at most venues, plus accommodations for those that want the memento ticket stub.
TMJ4's Lance Allan asked, "Old-school fans are like 'I want to save the ticket stub.' It's East versus West. What do you say to these people?"
"Well conveniently on our system, if you purchase a ticket, you're also getting an email with a PDF that sends you that ticket," Thinnes says. "We certainly have people that still print that ticket out and present that at the gate. It's absolutely scannable and works every time."
Parents getting into frenzy football games on Friday night or other sports will need to be aware of technology changing the process at high schools.
