Chiefs Are Rolling With New Season Ticket Holder Cards

If you're a KC Chiefs season ticket holder then you probably already know what I'm about to talk about here. If not, this is some more information on the Chiefs newest venture -- season ticket holder cards.

The Chiefs this year rolled out season ticket holder cards for all of their season ticket holders. It's literally a card -- looks like a credit card but not actually a credit card.

"We're trying to completely walk in the footsteps of the season ticket holder," Bill Chapin, Chiefs Senior VP of Business Operations, said in an interview this week. "What would make the experience phenomenal?"

They're meant to recognize the season ticket holders with something unique to them, Chapin said. They also have an actual purpose by giving them exclusive benefits for plopping down the money to buy season tickets.

The most important tangible benefit is, of course, money. The card will get season ticket holders discounts on merchandise and the Chiefs also identified the top eight selling items at the concession stands -- think hot dogs, sodas, etc -- and discounted those $1.

Yes, a sports team actually made some concession items cheaper. Totally blew my mind.

When we first heard about this early in the offseason the first question from most folks, including me, was how to give your tickets away. At first glance it appeared you wouldn't be able to sell or give away your tickets but that's actually not the case. You don't have to hand over the actual card (unless you want to) but passing tickets along to someone is just forwarding an email. The friend then prints down the paper tickets via email and they're like regular tickets.

What the Chiefs have not done that other teams have is attach the card to a credit card. Just my two cents here but doing that creates the perception that you're trying to make a little extra money off them. I think avoiding that is the right move for now, at least until the fans have gotten used to them.

The potential downside -- there's always a downside -- comes with the fact that you won't be getting the actual ticket stubs with the players on it, which I thought was pretty cool as a kid (...fine, even as an adult). Chapin kept talking about doing what it takes to make sure the season ticket holders enjoy their experience so I imagine there's a solution there someplace if the Chiefs find that to be a problem down the road.

A few other tidbits if you're interested:

• According to the Chiefs, 95 percent of the feedback has been positive. They actually quantified that number, Chapin said, so it's not just made up.
• There were 15,000 cards scanned at the Cardinals game two weeks ago, the first time the card was in use (besides a test-run at the Kenny Chesney concert over the summer).
• 3,000 printed tickets were used for the first preseason game.
• 1,500 tickets were forwarded via email.

Season ticket holders, let's hear from you. What do you think of the cards? Yay or nay?

Non-season ticket holders, what cool things can the Chiefs do in the future with this card?