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Open Away Ticketing |
Host in public GitHub pages repo with open prs. Kz name! Open. Decentralised. System of record. Get the bros involved!
What is the problem?
TODO. Talk about traditional printed allocations as well as more integrated efforts (call out Colchester, Cheltenham etc). Some clubs also build seat maps for the clubs they are playing away, but that only works if all access control systems are compatible and still doesn't give the home club control over ticket reissue/reprint or any kind of real time data view over what is sold.
TODO. Talk about how the commercial model needs to change and how to incentivise clubs to allow this.
Vision
We wish to let fans purchase away tickets through their clubs' ticketing system, just as if they were buying tickets for a home game.
We wish to enable the away ticket inventory to be controlled through the home clubs' ticketing system and the tickets for that game to be fulfilled (through digital ticket delivery methods eg. E-ticket, mobile ticket etc) from the home club. Because the home club issues these tickets, any issues with access control differences between the home/away clubs should be eliminated.
At all times the home club should be able to see away ticket sales on their own ticketing system in real-time.
Because the fan logs in and transacts through their home club, control of onsale tiers (eg. requiring a certain number of loyalty points, or a season ticket or membership) is controlled by the fans club as normal. This extends to granting any loyalty points after the sale etc. At all times, the customers data is controlled by their own club and only shared with the home club in a GDPR compatible manner.
Any post-sale reprinting, cancellation etc will result the the home club fully controlling barcode activation/deactivation all the way up to and beyond gates open, with full visibility and control for both clubs.
How can we achieve this vision?
We as the sports ticketing community need to work together. Kaizen have pioneered this experience through our Kaizen Network feature, enabling clubs to sell away tickets in this manner even on completely different screws control systems with different limitations.
However, in order to change the ticketing landscape forever, we need to link other ticketing systems to this network in an open manner to unlock this capability for the whole EFL pyramid.
To do this, we propose the formation of a working group to ratify a cross ticketing platform integration API. I invite ticketing companies serving the premiership down to L2 to join this working group to agree an API and timelines (?) to bring this dream alive.
Implementation Proposal
To kick start that effort, we have gone to the effort to outline a proposal for what the API should look like, and a phasing of how it should be implemented by the involved ticketing systems to control timelines, limit connectivity and manage technical risk.
Phase 1
Enable a fan to buy away tickets through their clubs' ticketing system as if they were buying for a home game, but with the away inventory being managed in real time by the home club. Initial limitation is away club sales are via best available only and without map, but are still down to individual seat level. Other than that, this will enable the full vision.
Phase 2
Enable away ticket sales from a visual seat map through the fans own club ticketing sten. competing the vision.
View from seat
Phase 3
Approval workflow? Prices, quantities,