|
Turnstiles turn back counterfeiters
By Steve Caulk, News Staff Writer So your daughter got sick the night of the Eagles concert at Invesco Field at Mile High, and you had to stay home and eat your $140 tickets? And now you think you'll recoup the expense by complaining about the sound? Think again. Thanks to a new application of bar-code technology, the Stadium Management Co. already knows you never heard a note of Peaceful Easy Feeling, and it had nothing to do with any fifth-level acoustics. The company, a subsidiary of the Denver Broncos, installed turnstile computer equipment from Ticketmaster that keeps track of which ticket was issued to which credit card and when the ticket was used -- down to the exact minute. The 88 bar-code turnstiles at Invesco Field exceed the number at any other arena in the nation. "Our goal was to make Invesco Field at Mile High the most technologically advanced stadium in the National Football League," said Rick Nichols, senior director of business development and ticket management. Invesco Field received Ticketmaster's first color-monitor turnstiles, showing patrons exactly how to insert the tickets, bar code up. Patrons will learn they should not let go of the tickets and expect to retrieve them at the other end of the turnstile as they do at airports. Motorized ticket feeds don't withstand Colorado weather very well. The color monitors present the Broncos with a new revenue opportunity that they intend to explore soon. Management will have the ability to put rotating banner advertisements on the turnstiles in conjunction with stadium sponsorships. Marketing director Greg Carney said the Broncos will try to sell the banner ads as part of a larger sponsorship package. "The opportunity to get your name or brand or message in front of fans is a pretty nice piece of inventory for us," he said. "I think we'll find someone who is interested pretty quickly." When a patron inserts the ticket, the scanner sends a signal to a wireless device mounted on a nearby wall, which relays the information to a central server and back to the turnstile, all within a quarter of a second. A valid bar code illuminates a green light on the turnstile. A bar code tagged as lost or stolen sets off a red light. The Broncos can reissue tickets reported as lost or stolen. Patrons leaving the building can ask an attendant to re-scan and reactivate the bar code. The Pepsi Center uses the same system, but the scanners are hand-held. Eventually, the Broncos hope to put a single attendant at a bank of several turnstiles, thus cutting down on staffing. The system also has two side benefits: First, ticket-takers no longer have to tear tickets to invalidate them."It allows customers to keep the tickets as collector's items, undamaged," Nichols said. Second, the system can become a proactive customer service tool. That is, if stadium managers become aware prior to an event that certain seats offer unacceptable sight lines to the field, they can program the central server to flag the turnstile any time a patron arrives holding one of those "problem seats." An attendant can ask the patron to go immediately to guest services, short-circuiting any stress that might develop over the issue.Patrons will notice the ticket insertion slot accommodates any width of ticket up to 5 3/4 inches. Ticketmaster anticipates that customers will soon print their own tickets on regular sheets of paper after ordering them on the Internet. The customer can simply fold the paper in half, exposing the bar code to the turnstile scanner, said Dave Henderson, vice president of technology for Ticketmaster.
| 
