ClubSpot is the brainchild of John Hyland. He combined his business and sporting backgrounds and founded the Cavan-based Club Management App that has been making waves through the sporting shutdown. In a time where many other businesses struggled, ClubSpot thrived. Challenges became opportunities, with digital ticketing being one of its main focuses as GAA clubs gear up for the return of competitive action in mid-July.
John explains,
“We just had this feeling that Covid is going to accelerate the need for digital products, especially in the sporting space and one of the big attractions of ClubSpot is the digital ticketing platform”.
The plan was to link up with Tixserve — who can boast Twickenham Stadium and many other large venues and events across the world as customers — next year, but the Covid-19 crisis accelerated the process.
Covid-19 Accelerating Digital Ticketing
Contactless ticketing will be hugely attractive as sport returns, with social distancing among spectators a key measure. So much so, that after Hyland approached Cavan GAA, a deal was made “in less than an hour.”
Using ClubSpot, tickets can be scanned safely at the gates of GAA pitches with spectators and volunteers being able to keep their distance. Hyland explains the process: “If you wanted to enter a match, you would go on to the Cavan GAA app, you’d buy your ticket — which you can do in less than 30 seconds — the ticket is delivered to your phone, and then you just scan it on your phone. The great thing with this is you can do this anywhere in the county! Cavan could have 20 different championship fixtures and they can have volunteers at each ground; all they need is their mobile phone and that acts as a digital scanner”.
Offline Solution
Hyland adds, "You don't need WiFi and you don’t need mobile coverage for this to work, which is a big plus, because obviously in rural Cavan and some of these places, mobile coverage is going to be poor and WiFi is only a pipe dream."
"It’s also much faster than paper ticketing. We can put 350 people through a gate in an hour using these mobile tickets. You then have the need for less volunteers on the gates when you’re taking people in; which is another problem that county boards are having — the age profile of their volunteers is rising and the number of volunteers is declining, so they’re finding it harder to get people to work the turnstiles and gates”.
Digital Ticketing Benefits for Covid-19
"The other big thing was, we could take away the handling of cash from turnstiles. So, instead of people having to handle large volumes of cash, it’s all done automatically. We’re able to track that, so if spectator numbers need to be limited, you can do all of that using our app. Seats can be then easily numbered to allow for adequate space between supporters, and gates opened rather than turnstiles used to ensure social distancing guidelines are adhered to at all times”.
“There is plenty of worry and risk involved as sport returns, but ClubSpot and its digital ticketing process can certainly ease the stress”, Hyland assures.
Safe Returning of Fans with Confidence
"We wanted to promote confidence in fans who want to return to sport,” he nods.“Everybody’s been in lockdown and stuck at home for the last few months, there’s been very little to do entertainment-wise. When sport does come back, everyone wants to go. But at the same time, it has to be safe! There are lots of older people who would love to go, but they’re told they should be cocooning. We now give them the option of a contactless entry to ease those worries. The closest contact you have is within a timeframe of two seconds, where the volunteer is holding their phone above yours to scan your ticket. It all saves going to a man in the van, or that, and then through turnstiles where there’s close contact, and tickets and cash being exchanged over and back.”
Hyland is confident that by next year most county boards will be able to offer the ticketless option, adding that other organisations in other sports can also benefit from the app.
To see how Tixserve’s unique ticketing platform works, contact us here.