“I’m nowhere near a world champion when it comes to judging ticketing solutions, but this is nevertheless the smoothest experience I’ve had at this stadium.”
The quote above belongs to one of the many volunteers at Brann Stadium, one of Norway’s largest stadiums, and these days also the home of Norway’s top-of-the-league club SK Brann
SK Brann signed up with TicketCo prior to this season, and the club has experienced somewhat of a smoothness revolution when it comes to ticket sales and speed of entry to the stadium due to this change.
Turnstiles – expensive and prone to issues
Throughout the years the club utilised a range of different turnstiles with their ticketing systems. Apart from the fact they come with hefty costs in both hardware and licenses, they also experienced issues such as incorrect set-ups and errors. It became very frustrating for the club.
The TicketCo solution, that not only caters for ticket sales online and on-site, also takes care of access control by validating tickets with a function built in to the TicketCo app. To integrate TicketCo with turnstiles is an option, however Brann had another solution in mind that would save the club a load of money.
Going forward…no need for turnstiles
When Brann tested out the TicketCo scanning functionality the football club realised they don’t need to integrate the solution with the turnstiles, instead they removed the turnstiles altogether and let the volunteers scan with their own mobile phones.
The processing time showed to be impeccable, and of course significantly less costly for the club, compared to operating with traditional turnstiles.
The experience on match day has certainly made an impact on the volunteers. Funny enough they miss the social element that slower queues bring:
“When we had turnstiles, we had a lot more eye-contact with supporters arriving at stadium. Now when the queues are moving so fast there’s no room for small-talk, we’re too busy scanning phones and tickets”
– volunteer at Brann stadium
Validation in a fraction of a second
“This was flawless. You just scan your ticket, and then you’re inside,” is the response from one of the many happy attendants who showed up at a packed Brann Stadium May 16th this year – the Norwegian equal to Boxing day.
TicketCo produced this short video for the occasion, and here you can see the festive crowds arriving the stadium – some with printed tickets, some with home printed ones, most with their tickets ready for scanning on their mobile phones.
At the gates they’re met by volunteers like the guy mentioned above, all with TicketCo apps installed on their mobile phones ready to scan.
That’s all it takes – the validation is done in a fraction of a second, the queues vanishes before they even appear. The optimised tech and features behind the QR codes is the magic behind it, which also includes multi-check-in of group bookings with one tap.
The stats
- 13 000 people
- All inside the stadium in 60 minutes
- 36 devices used (volunteers own mobile phones)
- This gives 216 entries per minute, or six entries per minute per device
The main stand at Brann Stadion is closed due to construction work this season, and the capacity is limited to 13 000. The game at May 16th was sold out.
All 13 000 tickets were scanned in 60 minutes with 36 devices.
This gives 216 entries per minute, or six entries per minute per device.
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