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Attention, Carolina Panthers fans: The days of scanning your printed tickets at Bank of America Stadium are drawing to an end, starting Friday with the team’s preseason home opener against the Buffalo Bills.
As part of a larger NFL directive, the Panthers will move to full mobile ticketing for the 2019 season. This continues a transition that began last season, when roughly 30% of all Panthers tickets were issued via smartphones, The Charlotte Observer’s Brendan Marks reports. This year, the goal is to get as close to 100% as possible.
Why the switch: A team official told the Observer that mobile tickets are safer and less susceptible to counterfeiting or being lost. When the print-at-home option was eliminated last season, the number of fraudulent tickets dropped 50-100 per game, the official said. Mobile ticketing also allows the team to better track sales and resales.
What’s the real reason? It has much to do with marketing, of course. The bulk of the team’s mobile ticketing will be done via the official Panthers app, Ticketmaster app, or web browsers. Either way, the Panthers will collect each buyer’s name, email address and potentially a phone number. This information will be used to “enhance gameday experience down the line,” the team official told the Observer.
Snafus are bound to happen: Not to worry; if your cell phone dies or you encounter some glitch, additional Panthers employees will be stationed around the stadium on Sundays to offer assistance. Look for the people with “Need Help?” on their backs. If you don’t have a smartphone, you can still call the ticket office at (704) 358-7800.
Just wondering: Decades from now, will that printed ticket you kept as a souvenir be worth something as a collectors item?
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