You don't understand how people at their companies evaluate stuff like this.
Any solution that increases capital or operating expenditures for them or the venues (half of whom they own, if I remember correctly?) is a non-starter if it doesn't generate some increase in revenue.
They will not do anything they don't have to do if it means any impact to their bottom line whatsoever.
We see it as "pennies per transaction."
They see it as "we sell 500M tickets per year so five cents per transaction is $25M/year in lost net."
Well that's where I'd argue they are negatively impacting their bottom line.
> These rotating barcodes on the other hand are far from perfect. I experienced this first-hand last year when I attended another very popular concert where they used a similar rotating-QR-code-ticket system. Numerous people including myself and my friends were floundering at the entry gate citing a bevy of broken barcode problems. ...
> The venue was so crowded that cell-towers and WiFi were overloaded. Internet access was spottier than a Dalmatian with chickenpox.
That is impact to their bottom line. They have admittees waiting at the gate blocking other people from getting in cutting into their concession sales.
If they'd used a bog standard TOPS system (like the op suggests) that would not be an issue at all. But instead because they have the dumb system where you reach out to the ticket master servers to get your code, they've created their own nightmare.
> I experienced this first-hand last year when I attended another very popular concert where they used a similar rotating-QR-code-ticket system. Numerous people including myself and my friends were floundering at the entry gate citing a bevy of broken barcode problems.
That's a different system. The article makes it clear that the Ticketmaster system works offline if you have opened it on the mobile app. Which they don't want to install.
You don't even have to use the app. You can just visit the ticketmaster website and add it to apple wallet straight from there. Can do it months in advance, too.
Any solution that increases capital or operating expenditures for them or the venues (half of whom they own, if I remember correctly?) is a non-starter if it doesn't generate some increase in revenue.
They will not do anything they don't have to do if it means any impact to their bottom line whatsoever.
We see it as "pennies per transaction."
They see it as "we sell 500M tickets per year so five cents per transaction is $25M/year in lost net."