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Ticketing Made Easier for Pocono Raceway Fans |
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Pocono Raceway has incorporated a streamline method of ticketing via online sales. It began with this year’s June NASCAR race whereas fans who ordered tickets over their computers are able to print them and with the introduction of barcoding, entering the grandstands has never been easier. Pocono Raceway signed up with New Era Tickets based out of Philadelphia and owned by Comcast-Spectacor. New Era Tickets is an international leader in providing full-service ticketing and database marketing solutions for public assembly facilities, sports organizations, and entertainment companies.Other major sports venues that utilize their service include the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers and Dover, Gateway and Nashville Speedways to name a few.“We were looking for a new ticketing agency and everything just fell into place,” said Pocono Raceway President Brandon Igdalsky.The current ticketing process first went into effect in October of last year which included re-ordering as well as new ticket sales. 2008 tickets under the new process then started going out a month later. All fulfillment of ticket orders are done at the track office.“Nothing has really changed in the way tickets are bought. The main thing is how we have been able to streamline our online ticketing sales which is now a lot more user friendly. We’ve added the option of print-at-home and when they come to the track we now scan every ticket as they enter,” said Igdalsky.The June race marked the first time that scanning was used and Igdalsky said it went very smooth being it was the initial try.“It went awesome. We got fans in from the gates faster than we ever had. You no longer had to have someone look at the ticket and then rip the ticket. It was just scan it and get them in. It definitely sped things up a lot.”Another plus with the new ticketing is in the event someone looses their ticket, they can now call the track office and have a new one issued thanks to the fact the tickets are scanned and have a barcode. “If you tell us that you’ve lost or misplaced your tickets, we then can go into our system and by using the barcode from that ticket, we adjust it to be invalid and we’ll get that person a new ticket,” said Igdalsky.“This also gives us a whole new angle of the security of our tickets. If your missing ticket has been scanned we can go up to the seat and find out who the person is.”This also puts a dampening on scalpers to a degree.“If they want to buy tickets and sell them they can still do that obviously, but there’s zero chance for counterfeit tickets now,” noted Igdalsky.
“It’s all about making things as simple as possible for the fans to get their tickets when and where they want to.”
For Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pocono 500, the raceway is donating ten percent of the ticket revenue generated by online ticket buyers who use the Red Cross promo code, REDCROSS, to American Red Cross Chapters in the tri-state area.
The first 1,500 ticket buyers using the Red Cross promo code will receive a free pre-race Pit/Paddock Pass ($50 value) and Souvenir Program Book and Commemorative Die Cast Car ($15 Value) as an added incentive. Tickets can be purchased at www.poconoraceway.com.
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