The New York Jets unveiled a new tier of season passes on Thursday that offer the NFL’s first season-long mobile-ticketing subscription service.
Jets Boarding Pass is a $725 package that allows fans to sit in a different seat each time they attend a 2017 home game, which includes 10 games between preseason and regular season. Up to six people can buy the package and request to be sat together.
The system’s algorithms, built by a company called Experience, guarantee that fans will sit in a variety of places throughout the season. One week they may be placed in the front row of the 50-yard line, while the next they may catch it from the mezzanine or upper deck. Some might even get a chance to watch a game from club seats.
“Any seat in the building is fair game,” Seth Rabinowitz, Jets’ SVP of Marketing & Fan Engagement, said in an interview with SportTechie. “We’re going to work real hard to get everyone to get as close to the action as possible each week.”
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
The seating depends on a game’s particular availability. Just like airline boarding passes often don’t provide a seat number but serve as a ticket for you to get checked in at the airport, the Jets Boarding Pass doesn’t reveal the seat or section until the fan arrives at Metlife on game day, when it’s delivered via the Jets app two hours before kickoff.
The idea is that it will give newer fans a taste of all the different potential seating options, almost like taking a season-long tour of MetLife Stadium.
“There’s a little bit of a sense of adventure,” said Rabinowitz. “We think that’s part of the fun.”
We’ve got a brand new way for you to attend #Jets games at @MLStadium.
It’s called Boarding Pass → https://t.co/Ws9oyen20C pic.twitter.com/3jVZ9RAtNV
— New York Jets (@nyjets) June 15, 2017
The package is available to anyone, but Rabinowitz said attracting younger or newer fans would be a “nice byproduct,” given the changing viewing habits of newer generations.
“Everybody in our industry is trying to stay current and remain relevant to audiences as they evolve,” he said. “We want to keep our product relevant to as wide an audience as possible.”
The Jets are guaranteeing that fans who come to all 10 home games will have — when taking into account all of the games — watched the season at a steep discount to what the value of those tickets might have been on their own.
“For some of the seats you’ll sit in, it’s a significant discount,” Rabinowitz said.
Unlike some of the Jets’ other season pass packages, however, the Boarding Pass is non-transferrable.
Also with the Boarding Pass, fans become eligible to participate in the Jets Rewards program, enabling them to earn points to use on prizes, such as autographed memorabilia or experiences.
JetBlue Airlines, a partner with the Jets on the Boarding Pass package, may also sprinkle in a few JetBlue perks, such as free miles or upgrades.
This kind of subscription-based ticketing experience is new to the NFL, but it’s not new to sports, having gotten its start with arena sports, notably hockey and basketball.