That's the way things are drifting. Heck, the Celtics sent out an email to STM this week about how mobile tickets is now their preferred method of ticket delivery.
It's probably pretty good for those trying to buy on the secondary market where it's pretty easy to get scammed these days if you're not careful.
It has four purposes, one of which I agree with, one of which I don't, and two of which I'm indifferent on.
1) Prevents ticket scamming, which is a growing issue.
2) Gets people through the gates more quickly.
3) Allows them to collect more data on their customers.
4) Allows them to track how many tickets some season ticket-holders are selling, and revoke future season-ticket privileges if the team wants because too many were resold.
Everything is going digital. Soon I expect that concessions will be credit only, and eventually may be tied directly to your ticket through Apple Pay/Samsung Pay and the like.
I'll miss paper tickets, however.
Agree with one although my experience with #2, getting people through the gates faster, was the opposite. I went to about a dozen games last year and their scanners never seemed to work properly. It always took a few zaps of the phone to get us through.
3&4 annoy me. I'm a STM and made it to about 1/4 of the regular season games last year. I'd be annoyed if the Celtics decided that they were going to set a minimum on the number of games that I could go to and the number that I could sell, although they'd really have no way of knowing which games I sold and which ones I gave away, unless I do it on the TM resale site. And if I'm in trouble, the person next to me is
really hosed. I've had my seats three years and have yet to meet the actual owner of the person sitting in the seats next to mine.
As for the marketing, well, I guess they have the right to do anything that they want with the information (and, for that matter, the seats). Still feels a little weird.
This upcoming year will be my sixth as a STM. In my second, they started to charge extra for getting real tickets. This year, I don't even know if they offer them. Kind of sad not being able to save ticket stubs, but it's definitely more convenient doing it on my phone.
Mike