The days of using paper tickets to get into an event are going the way of the pay phone. That includes high school sports in the Anoka-Hennepin district, where schools such as Blaine have gone cashless.
“It’s the way of the future,” said Shannon Gerrety, Blaine’s Assistant Principal/Activities Director.
Blaine is now part of the digital age as fans must buy game tickets through their computer or phone.
Said Gerrety: “I don’t know many metro area schools that aren’t doing online ticket buying right now.”
Most fans have adapted to the new policy.
“Very easy,” said soccer mom Amy Block, whose son plays for Blaine. “Seamless.”
From the preps to the pros, going cashless is the new norm at sporting events .
“I think it’s a good thing,” Block said. “I think it’s a lot easier if people don’t worry about having cash. They don’t have to worry about losing a ticket.”
“Works out really good,” said Craig Runnakko, of Coon Rapids, who recently saw a Cardinals-Bengals soccer match at Blaine HS. “Easy to do. People are paying for everything on their phones nowadays, so it’s nothing new there.”
“Everyone seems to like it”
According to Gerrety, Anoka-Hennepin has gone to digital tickets for a couple of reasons.
“Some of the key points are no cash exchange, so we don’t have ticket sellers sitting at the front door with thousands of dollars of cash unprotected,” Gerrety said. “That’s a big reason for it. Covid kind of taught us some things too. One of the things it taught us is we can do things without cash. It’s a combination of reasons. It’s been great for us so far.”
Getting tickets on your phone is easy peasy for the younger generation.
“No problem for kids,” Gerrety said.
But for others who might be confused by this techno ticket change, there is no need to panic because Blaine has people on-site to assist.
“We’ll help you,” Gerrety said. “Don’t worry about it. We got ya. Don’t let it scare you away. Come here, we’ll take the time to make sure you get it right.”
So far the paper to digital ticket change seems to be going smoothly, as fans have made the pivot.
“Change is different,” Gerrety said. “It takes a couple times to do it, or a couple different events. It’s been a great response. One of the nice things Anoka-Hennepin does is we offer free tickets for 60 years older. So they don’t pay anyways. That has helped that generation, the new technology.”
“I haven’t heard anybody complain at all,” Block said. “Everyone seems to like it.”
“The only reaction I get is the wife saying, alright get the tickets,” Runnakko said. “Better get the tickets now. Takes like less than a minute to go through that process.”
Blaine went cashless for all sporting events on on January 1. Every Minnesota state tournament is also cashless.
