Miami Heat season tickets go green
When Miami Heat season ticket holders arrive at AmericanAirlines Arena for tonight’s 2009-10 season home opener against the New York Knicks, they won’t be carrying traditional stock tickets with them.
Instead, they’ll have the print-at-home variety. The team has chosen not to print up ticket booklets to “reduce environmental contamination from harsh inks and chemicals used in the printing process,” according to a message sent to season ticket holders.
“What I hope is it’s one more step towards new technology that’s coming out hopefully in time for next year, where we can embed the bar codes into credit cards, licenses, whatever, so you don’t even need anything,” said Eric Woolworth, the Heat’s president of business operations.
Meanwhile, the Heat's also promoting recycling, by having the plastic bag that wraps the Miami Herald serve as a tool for getting ticket discounts. Bring the bag to the arena's ticket office for discounts of $10 off 300 level tickets ($30 or higher) or $15 off 100 level tickets ($85 or higher). That's the bags with the Heat ad on them that look like this: 
The Phoenix Coyotes became the first NHL team to go to a paperless ticketing system and are using a swipe card for entry to games. Read about it here.
Read about the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers experimenting with paperless ticketing here.
And here’s a story I wrote last year about sports – from golf courses to teams – making environmentally friendly changes in the name of going green.


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Comments
In Oz for years the Members get a plastic card with barcode that's scanned for entry... Nice & simple and doubles for free public transport on Game Days and this is for every major sport.
Posted by: Fertsy | November 4, 2009 12:26 AM
As a heat season ticket holder i feel they are taking me for a ride-i pay for my tickets plus i have to pay for pare and ink to print them-are you kidding me. If the heat were sincers about this they would have offered a ticket card-this is all about them saving money and not the enviroment-so PHONY!
Posted by: brian | October 29, 2009 5:03 PM
How is it "going green" if the season ticket holders have to print them out at home?
Is it green in terms of environment or green in terms of cash savings for the team?
Posted by: Mike | October 29, 2009 12:55 PM