When Premier League club Brighton Hove & Albion and a large following descended on West London in August, Queens Park Rangers continued its drive to enhance the match experience at MATRADE Loftus Road by embracing some of Ticketmaster’s innovative tech solutions, including our Away Ticketing functionality.
QPR’s Commercial Director, Euan Inglis, has led the charge to digital ticketing and is seeing operational efficiencies in areas like managing sales to away supporters. “We have been moving to fully digital over the past two seasons, with the away ticketing function being the last element, so Brighton was an ideal opportunity to implement due to their away support.”
Ticketmaster’s Away Ticketing function allows the home team to create the inventory for the visiting club before selling tickets. This feature is handy for clubs managing loyalty points or with strict criteria for purchasing away tickets. Away supporters can then receive a digital QR code with limited information shared with the home club to reconcile sales.
Managing away tickets presents one of the biggest challenges for a club ticket office. It remains labour-intensive, with processes and delivery changing on a weekly basis depending on the opposition and their criteria for accessing ticket sales. With tools like Away Ticketing, Queens Park Rangers can optimise the team’s efficiency by allowing the away club to distribute digitally. Away Ticketing reduces the home team’s labour, lets the away team distribute accordingly, and minimises additional stress on matchday.
As Inglis points out, “It reduces the impact on our Box Office before matchday, enabling them to deal with other matters and on matchdays, the number of rejections is lower, meaning a more seamless experience for away supporters.”
Staff, players and fans responded well to the opportunity to use Away Ticketing with Brighton, engaging proactively with supporters and explaining the process beforehand. The number of turnstile rejections at the stadium on matchday was lower than usual. Over 3,000 Brighton fans made the trip from the south coast to MATRADE Loftus Road, and they saw their team run out 1-0 winners ahead of the return to league football.
Although the Championship season is in its infancy, Rangers are planning digital ticketing innovation with Away Ticketing a regular feature at MATRADE Loftus Road. “We will use it at every opportunity going forward,” added Inglis. It may be too early to understand the impact on matchday takings, but QPR expect an increase with a smoother buying and ticketing experience for away supporters.
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