Traditional ticket windows at high school sporting events are gradually becoming obsolete.
Ryan O’Leary | Daily Journal
Technology continues to apply new wrinkles to the ever-changing high school sports landscape.
One is determined to phase out a pre-event tradition that spans generations.
Beginning the 2023-24 school year, both Greenwood and Whiteland will use solely electronic ticketing for those desiring to attend any of the girls or boys events requiring paid admission.
The move further distances spectators from longstanding staples such as ticket windows, face-to-face interaction and paying with cash.
Predictably, those who don’t own a smartphone or aren’t adept at using one for transactional purposes are going to long for the old way of doing things.
Athletic directors Mike Campbell (Greenwood) and David Edens (Whiteland) both understand and appreciate this.
“We will not turn anyone away, and will take (cash) as a last-case scenario,” Edens said. “But we accept credit cards at the gate, as well.”
Greenwood will do the same, according to Campbell. However, for the sake of speed and accuracy, the switch to digital is imperative.
“The one thing it does in the accounting piece of it is tell us how much money you took in, and how many tickets you sold,” Campbell said. “I am really going to like it because it gets people in the gate faster.
“I think the advantages far outweigh any of the drawbacks.”
As an example of how things will work, Woodmen fans can click onto woodmenathletics.com, which displays a schedule of upcoming sporting events and how to buy tickets, as well as season passes.
The website is already posting information regarding varsity and junior varsity soccer matches against Decatur Central on Sept. 2. Greenwood is set up to go live 14 days before a home event.
Both Greenwood and Whiteland use the Eventlink platform, which allows fans to see shared games against schools that also use Eventlink.
Whiteland fans can go to whitelandsports.com, a virtual mirror image of the Greenwood site (colors and logos aside) to purchase tickets and season passes.
“In the spring we did it, but we still had a cash box at the gate for those who couldn’t do electronic,” Edens said. “It just makes things easier because it takes less staff to do it, and it’s just a lot cleaner online, and has 100% accuracy.”
The inevitable switch to electronic ticketing was hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020.
And though that sports season was wiped out entirely, schools had no choice but to incorporate contactless methods of purchasing tickets and season passes the following fall and throughout the 2020-21 school year.
Granted, those were the days of limited attendance figures, though the same principle applies today — just on a larger scale.
“Nobody complained about it then because it’s what you had to do,” Edens said.
Center Grove fans can go to their school’s website and click on athletics, where there is a link devoted to ticket and season pass purchases. Here, too, there will still be a cash option during the upcoming school year.
“I prefer digital for everything as long as technology is successful with it,” CG athletic director Joe Bronkella said. “I think all schools can see the benefit of it if done efficiently.”
At Franklin, spectators can use cash or credit just like during the 2022-23 school year — though it, too, is contemplating going cashless at some point in the near future.
Indian Creek and Edinburgh are doing cash as well as online presale/purchase at the gate through Eventlink. At Greenwood Christian, a final decision has not been made, though using Eventlink remains a possibility.
“It’s just more efficient. It’s quicker,” Edens said. “I know for a fact it’s not everyone’s preference, and I sympathize with that. It’s just the direction society is going.”
