Source: TheGuardian
As football tickets go digital, we lose more than pieces of paper
Smart cards are replacing ticket stubs, which may be good for the environment but it’s not so satisfying for sentimental fansBy Alex Anderson for WSC, part of the Sport NetworkIt’s 1983. I’m 13, about to attend my first football match outside Scotland, and my dad hands me the most glamorous slip of paper I’ve ever seen. Mythic twin towers in bluey-brown shadow drawings and charcoalish watermarks, monochrome Union Flags billowing around the four-line legend: “WEMBLEY STADIUM Football Association INTERNATIONAL MATCH (British Championship).”It cost a fiver – “London prices” – but has the colour and texture of a tenner, and all the possibilities of a blank cheque. Thirty years later, our tickets for Scotland at Wembley were bigger, £50 dearer, more technologically advanced – all barcodes and holograms – yet somehow more prosaic. And it’s not a comparison I made from memory. Related: Club forums are a haven for football fans in an ever angrier online world Continue reading......read full article
