Requiem For The Paper Ticket

My 2013-14 Washington Wizards tickets showed up in the mail today. Well...not really. For the second straight year my season ticket holder packet contained no actual tickets. Instead, all four of my seats are again loaded electronically onto a single plastic card. If there were anyone else with me when I opened up the package, I am sure they could have cut the disappointment with a knife. Again. Even though I knew this year there weren't going to be any actual tickets inside.

I know we are moving towards most things in life being virtual but I'm not sure I'm on board with this electronic ticketing yet despite the obvious environmental benefits. I know three of the four major sports teams in the Washington D.C. area (the Wizards, Capitals and Nationals) are all electronic now but that still doesn't make it any more palatable. One of the most exciting things about receiving my season ticket package each year was seeing what the tickets looked like and who was important enough to the team to be featured on them. Now that anticipation is ruined. I mean I don't really care which players show up on the plastic card. In case you are wondering, last year it was John Wall and Nenê; this year it is nobody at all (just the Wizards' monument ball logo). 

I remember when I first bought Wizards season tickets before the 2000-01 season. I'd seen people at games with these gorgeous oversized glossy cardboard tickets and couldn't wait to stop using the crappy printed Ticketmaster tickets I always had and show off my own full graphic season ticket when I went through the turnstiles. Unfortunately, I must have ordered tickets after the main season ticket printing that year so I ended up with the same crappy Ticketmaster tickets that I didn't want. But the next year I was rewarded with what I really craved: full color tickets in four designs, all prominently featuring Michael Jordan's profile on the left of the ticket and one of our four "stars" on the right, Richard Hamilton, Kwame Brown, coach Doug Collins or Courtney Alexander. I'd finally got what I wanted and felt like I'd arrived. I'm not messing with you on the last player by the way; it's true.

Over the years there have been some great season ticket designs. I loved the 2002-03 season tickets which featured alternating blue and gold tickets with a single large font word (either "Pride", "Courage", "Passion" or "Commitment") and a single player in silhouette on them. My absolute favorite tickets (pictured above) were the following season's tickets which featured pretty much everyone on our team in black and white game photographs on 41 unique ticket designs. I also loved the playoff tickets we used to get, which featured multiple connected tickets which formed a single picture. My favorite playoff tickets were the 2006 playoff tickets, which featured our "big three" of Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler with the Larry O'Brien trophy.

There have also been some terrible ticket designs in the past fourteen seasons. I'd put the first ones I got in the fall of 2001 that I described two paragraphs ago into that category and not just for the inclusion of Doug Collins and Courtney Alexander. I also wasn't crazy about the 2006-07 tickets which featured our team slogan that year ("Go All In") and a half inch by two inch (barely) photograph of either Jamison, Arenas or Butler. We've also had some questionable player selections to grace our tickets over the years: Andray Blatche and Al Thornton were two of the five players selected for the 2010-11 tickets (the last tickets to feature players), Jarvis Hayes made it onto the 2005-06 tickets and I think I've already mentioned Courtney Alexander, right?

The 2006 playoff tickets. Just missing Gilbert's signature.

I think the thing I miss most about paper tickets is the souvenir quality. I have saved my ticket from every concert I have ever been to (where it was possible) and I keep those in my CD jewel boxes. I also still have a lot of my old tickets from attending basketball games.  They bring back memories. Some of these basketball tickets are the same Ticketmaster tickets that I loathed, some are the Wizards tickets I described above and some are other NBA teams' full color picture tickets that I bought for Wizards road games on the secondary market through StubHub.

I don't really do anything with all my old basketball tickets: a couple of them are on display with some signed basketballs in my condo but most just sit either in my file cabinet or a box of souvenirs that I have in one of my closets. I've had a bunch of tickets signed by players and those signed tickets are sitting generally in the same place as my unsigned tickets. I just like to have them. If nothing else, they have helped me remember a lot of the facts that I have put into this blog. For that alone, it has been worth saving them.

Road tickets to Wizards games vs. Chicago and Indiana featuring Derrick Rose and Roy Hibbert. No Andray Blatche caliber players on these teams' tickets.

Admittedly, I'm resisting the transition from paper tickets. If you know much about me, you'll understand. I was pretty much the last person I knew to get a cell phone (and when I got it, I refused to turn it on); I didn't own a computer until 2009; I still pay bills by signing and mailing checks; I don't buy electronic music or books; and I still balance my checkbook by hand each month. But I know I'm not alone in my longing for paper tickets and the souvenirs that they can become. There was a mini uproar from some fans when the Washington Nationals introduced electronic only tickets this past spring. The Nationals thought they accommodated the upset fans by offering commemorative tickets for sale, but I can tell they just didn't get the emotional attachment fans had to paper tickets. See the awesome article from Dan Steinberg to understand what I'm saying.

I know I'm senselessly clinging to the past in some respects here but paper tickets make me feel good although I'd admittedly give all those saved tickets up if I could get a team on the floor that could contend for an NBA championship. The home opener is November 1 and I'll be there with my plastic card in hand to start another season. Go Wizards!!!