Ticketing In The Shadows: How SoFi Stadium Crafts A Seamless Fan Journey

Ticketing works best when it disappears, and that’s exactly why we wanted this conversation. We’re joined by Andrew Bragman, VP of Ticket Operations for SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and Hollywood Park, to unpack what it takes to deliver a seamless fan experience for everything from NFL crowds to global pop tours and World Cup matches. When tens of thousands of people show up with sky-high expectations, “just scanning a ticket” becomes a chain of tech, process, and human decisions that can either build trust or break it.

We talk about what fandom has in common across wildly different audiences, then get practical about where friction still lives today: the on-sale moment, the dreaded queue,  app download resistance, and the realities of mobile ticketing when phones break or lose power. Andrew shares how the best ticketing teams operate in the shadows, plus why strong SOPs and real contingency planning matter more than flashy features when something goes sideways.

We also explore what the next five years could look like, including biometrics, facial recognition for faster entry and concessions, and personalization that helps fans without crossing into “creepy.”

If you enjoy smart conversations about fan engagement, venue technology, and the future of ticketing operations, subscribe, share this with a friend in live events, and leave us a rating and review.

Recorded Friday, August 28th, 2026
Hosts: Damian Bazadona, CEO & Founder, Situation & Maureen Andersen, President & CEO, INTIX
Guest: Andrew Bragman, VP, Ticket Operations, SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theatre & Hollywood Park
Producer: Peter Yagecic, Founder, A Mind at Work

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Welcome And Guest Setup

Peter Yagecic 0:04

You're listening to Fandom Unpack, the series where we unpack modern fandom with some of the brightest minds in sports and entertainment. I'm producer Peter Yagecic, and joining me in host chair number one today is Situation CEO and founder Damian Bazadona. And back in host chair number two is president and CEO of INTIX, Maureen Andersen. Maureen, I am so happy to have you back on mic with us for this next batch of episodes. I can only imagine how little daylight there is in your calendar these days as you get ready for the 48th annual INTIX conference, taking place January 25th to 28th in New Orleans. How are you feeling about this year's show?

Maureen Andersen 0:41

I'm feeling great. We've got a lot done already. But, you know, like you said, the daylight is that, you know, being basically 21 weeks out, take the holidays out. That only gives me 15 weeks. And, but, you know, it's getting done and it's exciting. I'm just always a little surprised when we hit it's almost September 1st, and, you know, it's all, you know, we're announcing the program in two weeks. So there you go.

Peter Yagecic 1:03

Well, I can't wait to see uh that program announcement come out. If you're listening to this podcast and you haven't yet registered for Intiks 2027, or maybe you're not a member yet, but it's been on your to-do list, you can take care of all of that over at Intix.org. Uh, and speaking of Intix, our wonderful guest today is a board member who first joined the organization back uh about 2013. We are joined by Andrew Bragman. Andrew is the VP of ticket operations for SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, and Hollywood Park. There is so much happening in the 300 acres that Andrew calls home in Inglewood, California. Damien, I would love for you to pick a place for us to get started in today's QA.

What Fandom Has In Common

Damian Bazadona 1:45

Yeah, first off, Andrew, thank you for joining us. Um thanks for having me. I've heard honestly remarkable things, uh, both about the stadium in particular, but also just the level of service and just the feedback that I get both from patrons and also inside the business. So, and it's it's hard to please people, and you guys do a really good job of it. So put that score one in the win column there. Um so you you sit at, I think, a really interesting intersection, um, which, depending on the night, um, the folks that walk through the doors, they could be diehard sports fans, a music fan, or from some totally different type of live experience. When you look across like SoFi Stadium, YouTube Theater, or Hollywood Park, what have you learned? What would you say is is sort of universal, I suppose, about fandom and the folks that are walking in, the commonalities, I suppose.

Andrew Bragman 2:35

Yeah, I mean, I think you you you hit it right in the question of it is universal. I mean, just thinking about the last events we've had at the stadium um was Carol G a couple weeks ago. We had foot a couple football games, and then we have BTS next week. Three totally unique, different groups of fans. Um, but that excitement, the energy they bring, the passion. Uh the fan behavior is different across all those. You know, Carol G was uh was people there were were excited, it was a party. Um, football is football. Everyone ever can imagine what that's like. And then going into BTS next week, which is kind of the most dedicated fandom um out there. So seeing the passion that all of those different groups bring uh is is really interesting and neat to watch. But at the core, they're all there to create an experience and to create memories at our stadium or at our theater or on our property. So our job is to facilitate as best as best we can, making that seamless for them. Uh, but but seeing that across is is a wonderful thing. And it's really just the the excitement and the passion that folks bring of they they're they're taking their time and their money to come see an event at our venues or any venue out there, and watching the excitement that they have as they walk through the doors as soon as the music starts or the the play kicks off, uh is incredible to see.

Damian Bazadona 3:53

I I would imagine, I just think in my hometown here, I mean I went to see Bruno Mars two nights ago. Uh I met Life Stadium, and then I'll go see a Giants game, and then I might see a weekend concert. I have two uh young boys, and so we go to see a bunch of stuff. And I always have such great admiration for the venue folks, the venue operators of like your job is to reduce all the amount of friction between the fan and their fandom. And that it gets hard. It gets everyone's needs are different, as you know, you know, better than I just so the dynamics are so complex, and and obviously you guys do an amazing job of that.

Ticketing As The First Touchpoint

Damian Bazadona 4:26

Um, when we think about the experience as a whole, I just want to talk, uh particularly on the ticketing front. I think a lot of people think about they I think they forget, uh it's often not talked about that the the fan experience begins much earlier than them actually arriving at the venue itself. Yeah um whether that's like finding event, choosing a seat, buying a ticket, all that other. How do you think about ticketing? Like how does that in in your guys' universe, how do you think about ticketing as part of the actual fan experience rather than simply like a transaction?

Andrew Bragman 4:57

Yeah, I think it's integral to the fan experience. It's it's one of the few universal touch points that every single person coming into the venue has. Not everybody's gonna go to the team store, not everybody's gonna go buy concessions. Everybody has a ticket to get in. Having that as a gateway to getting people that smooth experience from the time they get their ticket to walking into the building. And then also, you know, building that throughout the time that they're in the building. You know, it's become so much more complicated where it used to be they tear your ticket stub, you walk in and that's it. Now you're scanning your ticket at the gate. You may be scanning it again for access to a club or a suite, you may be scanning it again to get food or beverage or get a discount. So that's really the ticketing is at the core of that experience for people. I think um uh making that smooth for folks is really a great entry point to them having a good experience throughout the event. There's there's challenges to it, and and especially on some of the shows that we have where the demand is off the charts, there's gonna be friction. Uh, we only have 71,000 seats. And if if there's a million people that want to come see Taylor Swift at our stadium, not everybody can get a ticket. So so there's the built-in friction of just limited supply of something that's in high demand. So, how do we make that process from when somebody clicks on the link to try and buy a ticket to the time they they exit the building? Almost that the ticketing is is working for them in the background the whole time, but it's not something necessarily they're thinking about. It should be something that is is part of the process that they are are engaging with without even realizing that they're engaging with the ticketing throughout that.

Damian Bazadona 6:26

Yeah, I would imagine it just seems I again, I've another place I have deep admiration. Uh people have, you know, the rising expectations, they're spending more money than ever, and they want that to be as simple as possible. Um, Maureen.

Maureen Andersen 6:40

Hey, Andrew. It's nice to see you in here.

Damian Bazadona 6:42

Great to see you.

Maureen Andersen 6:43

Uh, you know, we've talked about over the years a lot about this weird and odd duality that kind of exists in ticketing. And you've always described ticketing as working in the shadows, but also being the front door to every live event. So I'm curious, from your perspective, sitting where you sit now, what do you wish that more executives and marketers, event producers, I mean, even the public, would understand about how ticketing operations can truly influence the fan engagement and build the relationships, the fan relationships and service, all kind of the whole package. How do we influence it?

Andrew Bragman 7:18

But yeah, do you I love my line about the shadows? Because, like I said to somebody during the World Cup, I said, my goal for the World Cup is that nobody talks about me and my team and the ticketing, and that means it worked. Um, and somehow, somehow it did. Um, but that's always the you know, making things work and making it, again, like I said before, a seamless process for people. Um, I think that as you talk about the the role that we play in what I wish other people knew about it is really, I talked about in the previous answer that the ticket is kind of key to that experience, that it unlocks so many doors that the the amount of data that's generated through ticketing that is used throughout the organization, uh, and that applies across the board, whether you're a big company or a small company, um, who are you selling your tickets to? We started in 2019, 2020 when I got to the stadium and it wasn't open yet. And we had a database of zero other than our season ticket holders to the football team. So now we have millions of people who've bought tickets to events at the stadium, uh, the theater across the property, that we're starting to learn what our fan base looks like. And do we know it all yet? No, even after seven years. But taking that data and being able to give that to our sales team, to our uh corporate sponsorship team, to all the people across the board, our marketing team, um, helping them build those fan profiles. What is it that the people that we're looking at that are coming into the property every day and helping them use that to target who they're going after? I think the other stuff is really just the amount of revenue that's generated through the ticketing side isn't thought about because it's you know it's an online transaction. It's not as clean as, you know, SoFi Stadium, but SoFi paid some money to have that sign there. Um, the ticketing side a lot of times goes under the radar, especially on the concert side, haven't worked on the team side previously. It's a little more observable because you have a sales staff and you have season tickets. For us, every event is a one-off for the most part. Uh the football teams handle their sales for the ticketing side. So for us, every time we're going on sale, we're selling, you know, hopefully selling out the concert. You mentioned Bruno Mars. We've got five Bruno Mars shows coming up, which is exciting because I've never seen him before. And I've heard he's a great show. Yeah, I've heard it's heard it's the best. Uh, but when we go on sale for Bruno Mars, we're starting from scratch, and we don't know if we're gonna have a sellout or are we gonna have to pull some levers to help figure things out, working on uh, you know, stuff that you guys, I'm sure, have talked about with other guests, but you know, dynamic pricing and inventory management and yield management on the ticketing side. And as it's matured into platinum seats or premium seats along those lines, um, working hand in hand with our premium team. We've got 260 luxury suites in our building. Sounds like a lot. We've had events BTS next week is a great example. We're sold out of suites and we figured out ways to create with our premium team, ticketing team, working hand in hand, one-off spaces that we can create and and monetize for an event. And that's the kind of stuff that we're doing on the revenue side that I think people don't necessarily say, well, that's ticketing doing it, but it's kind of, as I said, kind of yeah, it's that thing where we we come out of the shadows and then we

Friction Points And Human Backup

Andrew Bragman 10:13

dart back in.

Maureen Andersen 10:13

But we, I mean, we kind of like like have to. You know, it's like you said, is that if they do see us, I mean, there's usually a problem if we're, you know, pulled out of the shadows. So that brings me to my question about friction and you know, actually keeping a human element. And as our ticketing journeys have become so incredibly digital from purchase and transfer to entry and security and all the other stuff and concessions, plus the data, where do you see the biggest points of friction are still today? And as even as the technology continues to get smarter, how do you see us making sure that we do not lose sight of the human elements and that this still is a human interaction and a human event experience? And I'm curious, you said that you have BTS coming and that you have 90-year-old grandmothers who are BTS fans. You know, making sure that that human element could be far different than what you had last night at a football game.

Andrew Bragman 11:15

Yeah, and for us, the the customer experience really is the front, the the foremost thing in our minds as we go into any event. Um, obviously that's going to be approached differently from a football game than a BTS concert. And, you know, what is security, security concerns? I'm not as worried about the BTS crowd. I might be looking at it differently for a football game. Um, but I think, you know, as you talked about kind of we talked about the front door, the biggest friction point, I think, is when I mentioned that that ticket buying process at the beginning. And it's tough. Um, you know, when you have, like I said, a million people trying to buy 70,000 tickets, they're gonna get dumped in a queue and they're gonna be upset and they're gonna look for somebody that they can hold responsible for them not being able to come see their favorite artist. And, you know, I'll I'll go on during every on-sale we have. I jump in the queue to make sure things are working. And uh, you know, I'll end up at 140,000th in the queue. Um, and for me it's a test, but for somebody else, that's a real experience where they're saying, this sucks, I'm not gonna get a ticket. Um, and I don't, you know, there's there's people that are working on ways to improve that process. And they've done, you know, targeted pre-sales. And there's a company that uh where ticket master clients all you reference a lot of their stuff, but they're working with uh a company now for being able to kind of any seats that they release late, instead of having those go back dumped out onto the open market, having a wait list ready so that they can have people who are verified that are fans. Um, I know Spotify just bought something where um, if you're a listener on Spotify of a certain artist, you can have the right to buy tickets for a couple shows without having to go through that friction. So there's there's ways to try and target it and streamline it. Um, but that's a tough part. I think the other part, and thankfully for me, we're at a a new building. We have great technology and great infrastructure there. We've got you know the most robust Wi-Fi system that was ever put in the stadium. As of when we were built, I'm sure somebody's somebody's surpassed that now over the last six years. Um, we've got you know 5G, everywhere on our campus, all the way across um out to our parking lots into our retail districts. So we've got the connectivity. Um, mobile apps are tough. People don't want to download an app sometimes. How do we do that? Uh, one of the things that Ticketmaster has done is pushed more people to the app because it's a more secure environment than the website. So, how do you balance those types of things? Um, we we are 99.9% mobile ticketing, but we make that accommodation, Maureen, to your point of you know, when there is the issue or there is somebody who who legitimately their phone is broken, they don't we we have people who come up with a flip phone and can't log in. Uh the World Cup, we had folks, we I I think the last count I had is 199 countries uh attended the World Cup at our stadium, which is crazy. It's actually more country. I was talking to our PR yesterday, it's more countries than actually exist. Uh, but the way that FIFA defines a country is via uh, if you have your own football association, so there's some some doubling up in there, but uh you know, people had phones that didn't work in the US, or uh people have from certain countries couldn't download the app for FIFA to access the tickets. So, how do we make that experience food or for them? Yeah, we will print the ticket if we have to at that point because we're not going to tell you you can't go in just because your phone doesn't work. So it's that balance. And then, you know, we've talked about this a lot more in it at the at the conference. I've heard I've been to sessions about it, the contingency plans about what if that doesn't work, but how do you make that process as smooth as possible for somebody when, oh my god, oh my God, the standing isn't working or the tickets aren't loading, and what do you do? So working, you know, with our with our ticketing vendor, with our access control vendor, and having a plan. So, you know, the in case of emergency break glass, and you hope you never have to break the glass. But uh, I remember when I was an intern for the San Francisco Giants 20 something years ago now, uh, we had a day where the ticket system went down. And, you know, Russ Stanley, who's a legend in the industry and his team had a plan. They had before the game, before the the night before, had printed out every seat that was sold. That stadium was sold out. That was the first or second year stadium was open there. And we sat there and we handed tickets for people to get them into the stadium if they didn't have their tickets on them. Um so you figure it out, you make it work, and you do what you can do.

Quick Sponsor Break

Damian Bazadona 15:16

Hey guys, Damien here. I just want to take a quick moment to say if you're enjoying this podcast right now, odds are you're in the business of selling live experiences. And if you don't know my team at the advertising agency situation, you most definitely should. Aside from just being an awesome group of human beings, they're a global team of professionals covering a brand base in sports, arts, theater, culture, museums, or any live experience that requires people coming together. Big, small, all shapes and sizes of brands. You can hit them up at the information below in the show notes.

Standards That Scale Across Venues

Maureen Andersen 15:57

Andrew, you are a ticketing unicorn in the sense that you have worked for pretty much every vertical in the industry at one level or another. And so you bring this vast body of knowledge with you. So, for example, what you just said with the with working as an intern is that you know how the importance of a plan. So, since you still now you're with different teams, leagues, promoters, artists, all kinds of event types. I mean, you're going to turn into a swimming pool for the Olympics. Um, you know, how are you creating the standards and the processes and the services that keep everything consistent enough to operate at scale as you have to slide the keyboard keys to something different? And what kind of lessons can all of us out here in Intex and in ticketing um take from that, even if we're at smaller organizations?

Andrew Bragman 16:47

No, it's it's a great question. I think I actually mentioned it uh, you know, after the World Cup, I was on the Wednesday wisdom call. Um, and he asked about, you know, what what my thoughts about the World Cup were. And people were like, I can't believe it's the World Cup. And what I said to people is if at the end of the day, it's the same as ticketing a hundred-person theater. The scale is different, but you're still selling tickets, you still have to get people in the door, you still have the same goals at the end of the day, uh, you know, performing arts, uh, sports, major concerts. Uh we've done it all, award shows. It's really the same lessons. And you know, we we are unique in that we've got a 6,000-person theater, a 71,000-person stadium, and then 300 acres that we'll ticket events across the property on. Um it's the first time I've had multiple venues that I've worked with before I've either been with one team or one venue. And one of the things that we've really tried to focus on here is having those synergies across YouTube Theater, SoFi Stadium, and Hollywood Park, that uh, you know, the the the bad joke I was making, not a joke, is you know, if I got hit by a bus tomorrow or the whole team, this became a real thing, the whole team in the theater goes down with COVID, the stadium team's gonna have to go over there and jump in. So having those plans, those processes of procedures in place that at the core, they can jump in and do the job. Um now, are there intricacies that are gonna be a little bit different in every venue, or to your point, every event that we have in a single venue? Yes. But having those SOPs in place that we can go, you know, somebody should be able to walk off the street. Um, and if they have the ticketing background, look, okay, here's here's the here's the documentation, here's how they do it at Hollywood Park, and be able to pick up and get, you know, get 75% of the way there, do something that'll actually open the doors and get the people into the building. Um, and it's something we've worked really closely. I've got a great team. And I I not just saying that, I have an amazing team of people that are really dedicated to what they do and constantly improving those processes too. Um, the World Cup was a unique opportunity because we had eight weeks where we didn't have any other events in the stadium. And without me telling my team to do it, one of the things they did is start looking at those processes and say, how do we improve them and talking to other venues and taking that as a time where it was like almost like a almost like an internship for them where they can go out and and talk and learn and figure out ways to improve our processes over the time. I think along with that, the you know, the flexibility and being able to react. So you've got the best-laid plans. Stuff is always gonna happen that's unique. Um, we had uh our our first World Cup match, the exterior, they had two standing locations. There's an exterior stand to kind of validate that you got a real ticket and then you would stand in the stadium like you normally would. They got overwhelmed with lines at the the primary and they stopped standing out there. So where we thought that we were gonna have all of our big ticket resolution issues happen outside of the perimeter, all of a sudden they were happening at the box offices closer to the stadium. And we didn't have printers in there the first match uh that you know FIFO only had a limited number of printers. So we're running printers back and forth to get things into the inner perimeter that we thought we needed the outer perimeter. So having the plan though, and and it was a great example of going through and figuring out what's your contingency plans for stuff that it hasn't happened to me in a 20-plus year career, but it could, and having those plans in place so that, you know, when when it happens, I think we're always trying to look at our processes, we're always testing uh, you know, the day, day before an event, the day of an event, making sure all the computers work, all the printers work, all the ticket standards work, um stuff that is boring and redundant, and it's one of the most important things we do because if we don't catch it ahead of time, then we're gonna try and open the gates and not be able to facilitate the stuff we need to do. Um, and I think the other thing is always looking at ways to innovate. I mentioned it with the ticket standards. Um, you know, we we work with our vendors. Um, we have a great IT innovation team. We're unique in it. We have a regular IT team, and then we have a separate group that's focused on innovation. And what are the different things I think, you know, as we talk, we can talk more about technology stuff, but looking at ways that are what's out there that we can use to improve stuff. And they're constantly bringing me and saying, hey, have you seen this vendor? Have you seen this vendor? What do we think we can do to make that process better?

Maureen Andersen 20:44

Yeah, thank you, Andrew. It's great because what it, you know, what I really hear is that if you have all of this stuff in place, that when something comes up, it doesn't become chaotic because you're so well versed in your skills, your processes. And that's the same, like you said, hundred by 100 seat black box theater, 70,000 sofa at your neighborhood stadium.

Damian Bazadona 21:06

Hey guys, Damian here. If you're listening to this podcast, I'm gonna bet that you're probably thinking about how your team works and adapts right now in this new technology landscape. That's why the one person I always point people to is my co-host, right here, Peter Yujisik, and his company, a Mind at Work Consulting. They run smart, tech-enthused workshops that help teams build new skills and actually put ideas into action. Peter is way too humble to brag, but I have no problems bragging for him. So if you're serious about what's next, talk to a Mind at Work Consulting. More in the show notes below.

Maureen Andersen 21:48

Peter, I think we've got some uh listener stuff, don't we?

Surprises From BTS And World Cup

Peter Yagecic 21:52

Yeah, we had a couple of listener questions come in. And as we've been going along, I wanted to pick the best one uh that we haven't touched on so much yet. In the conversation. So, Andrew, I know you said that your audience database is only seven-ish years old and you're still figuring out, you know, what they want, what uh you're learning things from them all the time. Uh, I I would love for you to share a story. Was there anything that you learned from a particular fan base where the audience behaved differently than you expected? You've you've covered some of the surprises that led to operational changes, but is there, was there a surprise moment that kind of delighted your team that where you maybe it's that 90-year-old BTS grandma, but but was there something that you said, oh, we we didn't expect that. It's it's not a problem, but maybe it's an opportunity for us in the beginning. I'm just wondering, does anything come to mind uh over your years of of learning about your audience that surprised you?

Andrew Bragman 22:52

Yeah, there's a couple that stand out for me. Um the first one, and going back to BTS, we had them um in their first concerts after the pandemic, it was four nights, uh, sold out. We had people flying from all over the world for that. So we knew it was gonna be a big deal, but I had never worked a K-pop show before. Everyone told me how how how passionate the fans were gonna be until you experience it in person. Um one of the the cool things about that fan base is they are incredibly respectful, incredibly you know, well behaved, um, they they follow the rules, they expect excellence from the people that are serving them as well. And that's what we're doing. So they they came in. And if you do a good job, they will thank you, they will praise you, they will go out, go on the forums and and social media and talk about how great the experience was. They'll also do the same if if you don't meet those expectations. And you know, it was our first concert to those really those scale. The first night we we ran rolled with the punches, we found some things out we had to change. And by the fourth night, you know, things were running seamlessly. I'm very excited to have them back next week to show the Army um how much we've learned and grown in the last uh six years. Um, but having having a group that that expects you to be as great as as they expect our artists to be, they look at it all as part of the same experience that the venue, the parking, the concessions, the food and beverage. Um so we've learned a lot from from them just in terms of how to meet the expectations of the folks that are coming into our building. The other one that really surprised me, and I've talked about it a bunch, was the World Cup. Uh, we've had a lot of soccer at our stadium. Um we've had we're lucky Southern California is a great market for anything, but it is a great market for soccer. We've had the Mexican national team, we've had Brazil, we've had the US, we've had um a ton of different people play before we got into the World Cup for different events. Um, soccer could be a tough crowd. It is a passionate, passionate fan base, as you can imagine. Um, where you've you've got to separate the the two different fan bases. Um one of the clubs we had, the Mexican club that we had play here, they had their fan base, their fan supporter groups, they had two different groups that don't like each other. So we had to put the two groups of fans from the same team in different areas. Um so you can imagine how tricky making things work for a soccer match can be. The World Cup blew me away in that the fans had as much passion as you would expect and see from anything else. We didn't have fights, we didn't have conflict. And I don't know if that was you know the uh uh uh benefit of the countries that we had playing or you know, the demographics of that or or whatever it was, but it was a much smoother experience than I expected the World Cup to be. Um you watch soccer on TV and you see people you know storm at the gates or storm in the field, we didn't have that stuff happen. And again, we talked, we had plans for that, but um the the the excitement we had, uh we had Bosnia and Herzegovina play at our stadium, and the Bosnian fans marched through Englewood with their flags and their banners and uh all the way to the stadium. And then I was texting a fellow board member at Intex, um, who's I had helped get tickets for somebody for the match, and she sent me a picture watching the Bosnia match in Bosnia where she was visiting family. And I'm sitting at the stadium, sent her a picture back of the team and the fans singing and dancing and chanting. And it was one of those like full circle moments. It was really cool to have that experience. But the the fans for the World Cup were great because you had that passion. We we had Iran play twice at our stadium. And as you can imagine, the the the world of of nuances that come with with that in the middle of a uh conflict, with everything that goes into Iran and the United States. LA has the biggest Persian community, I believe, outside of Iran. So we had a passionate Iranian fan base there. Um, but yeah, the the the passion that that those fans had, the passion of the BTS fans, um, the passion of the NFL fans, it's it's like I said, it'd be getting universal. But the BTS fans have have taught me how to do my job better. Um and I and I appreciate that because every time we have somebody new and something different into the building, we're learning from them.

Peter Yagecic 26:53

Yeah, I think one of my favorite stories from the World Cup this past summer was all the stories coming out of Boston of the Scottish fans that that embraced Boston. And I think as a country, we have a lot that we can learn from being a host in that way and and seeing the best of people come to the fore. So I'm so glad to hear that that's something that that resonated with with you as well. Um, Damien, would love to kick it to you to close us up.

Damian Bazadona 27:22

Yeah,

The Next Five Years Of Ticketing

Damian Bazadona 27:23

no. So first, Andrew, thank you for taking the time. I know you're fresh off a game last night, you're up late, and here you are doing a podcast with us. And I have to say, like the reputation, as I said up front, you guys have such an amazing reputation. And it's it's it when you just literally said the BTS fans made you better at your job is is at the core of probably why you guys are so good at what you do, of sort of reframing excellence and raising the bar and listening to fans. And so kudos to that. We do, we, we've run this podcast for many years at this point. And to be able to hear, that's the kind of the first, I'd say one of the first times I've heard people like more explicitly say, our fans made us better, that group of fans made us better at what we do. Good on you. Um so you spent your to kind of close this out, so you've spent your um your career not only driving ticketing innovation, but during that period of time watching ticketing move from something most fans, I would say, probably barely even thought about, to what's turning into technology and a data-driven part of the experience. So let's imagine we're having this conversation five years from now. What do you hope will feel fundamentally different about the way fans discover, buy, receive, and ultimately experience their their ticket?

Andrew Bragman 28:36

It's funny because I always joke with people like, I'm not an IT guy, but I've had to learn enough about IT doing ticketing now that uh that I could be a little bit dangerous on it and at least uh think I can diagnose some things. Um I was I was lucky, I I I meant grew up in the Bay Area, interned for the Giants, and the Giants were really at the forefront of a lot of the technological innovation. So seeing that as a as an intern, as a fan, um, as they, you know, barcodes on tickets, something I have my younger staff is like, doesn't understand that it wasn't always a barcode on a ticket, or they knew your phone was your ticket. I'm like, guys, this is all it's progress. I I got to dig up, I did a presentation one time about the history of ticketing as kind of an intro to something and went through that. It was it was pretty fun to look at like nothing really changed for a thousand years, and then everything changed in 20 years. And I think that's kind of like everything else in our society, right? The technology has just reshaped how we live our lives. Um, I think if I if I tried to say what I know five years from now is gonna be like, I I will totally miss because five years ago from now, looking at, you know, I don't think I had ever heard, and I I made it almost to the end of the interview without saying AI, but um now it's driving so much of what we do. So I think, you know, one of the things I think is gonna be a big change over the next five years, and it goes back into we talked about the buying process and and that is is a much more personalized experience that as um you know the the data can be can be a little creepy, how much everybody knows about you everywhere. And and and we try and have we have to be careful with that. We have to balance, you know, how much we personalize because there's a point where it can tip to, I feel like I'm being targeted as opposed to you're doing something positive for me. So how do you make it work discreetly in the background? I think one of one of the great jobs at it across the street from us at the Intuit Dome. Um, when they opened, they went to a fully biometric facial recognition system for entry for concessions for, and you give them your face, and and people are like, Are you comfortable giving them your face? And like, my face is out there. People, people know what I look like, um, but they've taken that to an experience where you walk through the front door without having to take anything out of your pockets. You walk up, I felt like I was stealing the first time I went there. I went up, grabbed a hot dog and a beer off the shelf and walked away. And I was like, am I doing this right? Because it was, it just, it was like, and it's different than even the the you know, the just walk out concept where I tap my credit card to get in, pick my stuff up and tap it again to get out. This was just like grab it and walk away. And I was like, this is this is great. Um, and I think that's that's the beginning of it. Um, one of the things we we have tried to do on the football side is I mentioned before the football side, everybody gets in late. So how do we take that data we know about um an individual fan or the fan base that's coming as a whole? And who are the people who are always coming in late? How do we get them into the stadium earlier? And you know, we can try a cheap beer, we can try things like that, but how can we really make it something that is going to speak to Andrew as he's he's sitting in the parking lot to get him in 20 minutes earlier um to get folks into the building and you know, hopefully they buy a beer from us, but at least, you know, get the pressure off the outside and get people inside to the building. Um, there's a company with it that does uh facial recognition. We use them for our credentialing at our stadium for the NFL, full access to the locker room in the field. We've talked about do we bring them in on the ticketing side? On the tiffeting side, it's gonna help me get people into the building a little bit smoother, a little bit quicker. Um, but our dates aren't our main problem. Our biggest problem is concessions at halftime of a football game or the intermission of a concert. And the the pick the demos I've seen and seeing it in person at other venues, that if you have registered for Wicked and it's an opt-in system, but if you've registered, you can scan your face to get in. I can go up to a concession stand, it is takes my picture, my credit card is tied to that, my ideas tied to it. And I can walk out of there with a beer at halftime of a football game in 10 seconds as opposed to it taking a minute. So I said to our folks, I mean, how many more beers can we sell if we speed up that process? But also, me as the fan, I'm not waiting in line, I'm getting back to my seat quicker. So I think the biometric stuff and it is where things are gonna go. And then just using all of that data to to ultimately improve the customer experience, um, whether that's targeted or not. But what are the wait times for bathrooms and things like that? So we're starting to layer in all these technologies that can can meter how many people are in a certain area at any given time just to help us with, okay, this concession line looks longer. Do we need to start redirecting people over to here? Um, it's it's it's it's funny because the old school about all that is when we had Kerl G a couple weeks ago, we knew that from the data, 80% of the crowd was female. We took some of our men's restrooms and flipped them to the to female restrooms ahead of time because we knew we were gonna need that the capacity there. But the same applies to stuff that we can do in real time now that before we just didn't have that ability to do. Um it's it's all the stuff that the tech technology is going to bring to us. And like I said, I I wish I knew what five years down the road would be. I would quit my job and start a company, uh, doing whatever that's gonna be. Um, but there's there's some really smart people out there that are really sticking around great technologies that are um just at the entry now that I think in five years will be universal across the board.

Peter Yagecic 33:21

I I love the flexibility of a building where you can change the bathrooms. As long as you don't ever change a bathroom into a kitchen, I'm cool. I'm good with it.

Andrew Bragman 33:31

It was funny because you have, you know, most times you know everyone jokes about the women's restroom lines. And I had the we had the men's restroom lines uh last week for Carol G. So it was it was it's actually something we do all the time. You know, we we try and use that data, like I said, about who's coming to the show and saying, is it perfect? No, but we can get a pretty good sense um either from the data or from talking to other venues of who that is that's gonna be coming to an event and try to be proactive with things like that so that we can, and I think for BTS, we'll we know it's gonna be a skew heavily female again. We'll flip some restrooms again to make it just a again a better experience for everyone coming into the building.

Maureen Andersen 34:04

Who'd have thought that crack in the bathroom code would be you know the the key, the key to great fandom, but I think you might have done it, Andrew.

Andrew Bragman 34:11

Well hanging fruit, Maureen.

Closing Thoughts And Where To Follow

Peter Yagecic 34:12

That is gonna do it for this episode of Fandom Unpacked. Thank you, Andrew, Damien, and Maureen for being with us on mic. Thank you, Heather, for all the work you're doing behind the scenes. If you liked what you heard today, please check out all the great QA interviews we've done at fandomunpack.com, or by searching Fandom Unpacked and following the series in your podcast player of choice. We'd also love for you to rate and review the show while you're at it. That really helps us to find new fans. We're going to be back in your feed in a couple of weeks for the entire Fandom Unpack team. I'm Peter Yigstic. We'll see you next time.