If you’re holding any Bruins ticket stubs from the 2018-19 season, consider them even more of a collector’s piece. The Bruins notified their season ticket holders in recent weeks there no longer will be printed tickets for anyone.
The decision to dump the paper ducats, said Glen Thornborough, the chief revenue officer on Causeway Street, came after some three years of weighing the pluses and minuses of the digital ticket age. In the end, the technological ease of ticket “transferability” carried the day.
“This year we thought was the year to do it,” said Thornborough, adding that nearly one-third of the league’s 31 teams have gone to paperless tickets.
A quick primer on usage, beginning with the exhibition season home opener Sept. 23:
■ Each season ticket holder (STH) will be issued what amounts to a credential, a credit-card-sized ID typically clipped to a lanyard that is placed over the neck.
“Sort of a badge of honor,” mused Thornborough.
The credential, or pass, will allow the season ticket holder to enter the building, along with companions, up to the total number of seats purchased in the season ticket holder’s account.
If the season ticket holder opts not to attend that game, he or she simply can hand over the credential for someone else to wear into the building.
Thornborough said he doubted that would be a common practice, but it’s possible, noting that the credential takes the place of 44 tickets, representing all games in a season, sitting in a drawer.
■ More typically, noted Thornborough, season ticket holders (representing 12,400 tickets per game in total) will transfer tickets digitally from their STH accounts. It only takes a matter of seconds for the account owner to “flip” the tickets, sending them to a smartphone via a designated e-mail address or text.
The recipient, with that game’s barcode on a handheld device, then will present the digital ticket for entry for that night’s contest.
Voila. Nearly a century after printing tickets — for season ticket holders and walk-up customers alike — the Original Six Bruins have jumped the digital ducat shark.
Walk-up customers, by the way, must have smartphones in order to accept the tickets they purchase at the box office.
As for those old-timers who cherish their ticket stubs, Thornborough said the Bruins will continue to print thousands of free posters, termed “roster cards”, that will be handed out each game. The posters, 11 inches by 17 inches, will serve as new-age stubs, and actually provide far greater space if the holder is lucky enough to score an autograph.
Thus far, said Thornborough, customer pushback has been minimal, and has been more than outpaced by those who like the new-age process. Nearly 50 percent of last season’s customers, he noted, entered the building via tickets on handheld devices.
“It’s a decision we don’t make lightly,” said Thornborough. “Our lifeblood is our season-ticket base, and everything we do we try to do around customer experience and how we can manage expectation. Any decisions involved with our season ticket clients are done with tremendous care — we know the value they provide. They are very emotional toward our brand, as are we.”