Harrisburg Senators
Consumer/Retail Testimonial
"Our new on-line capability probably will improve our ticket ordering process tenfold," said Todd Vander Woude, general manager of the Senators. "It's great for the fans, and it is great for us. The new system allows fans to select their seats in the stadium rather than corresponding back and forth with the ticket office on seat availability. That's the way we used to do it. Now, once selected and purchased on-line, it is as simple as printing the tickets at home or we can print them for you at our ticket office."
Case Study
Problem
The Harrisburg Senators Have Been Looking for a Method to Make it Easier for Fans to Order Tickets to Their Games.
D&E’s Solution
D&E Implemented an On-Line Ticketing System to Allow Fans to Easily and Accurately Purchase Tickets.
This year, buying game tickets has been made a lot easier with on-line ticket ordering - a service that the Senators management asked D&E Communications to design and implement for them. To buy tickets on-line go to www.senatorsbaseball.com, select the seats, purchase the tickets and then print them with a local printer or have the box office print them for pick up at will-call on the day of the game. Bar codes on the tickets are scanned at the gates for admission.
"Our new on-line capability probably will improve our ticket ordering process tenfold," said Todd Vander Woude, general manager of the Senators. "It's great for the fans, and it is great for us. The new system allows fans to select their seats in the stadium rather than corresponding back and forth with the ticket office on seat availability. That's the way we used to do it. Now, once selected and purchased on-line, it is as simple as printing the tickets at home or we can print them for you at our ticket office."
Douglas Shenk, Consulting Engineer at D&E Communications, said the process actually began in 2006 when D&E installed wireless routers to connect the Senators' main office and Internet to the press box and annex at the ballpark. This allows visiting press to broadcast live and report on the game over the Internet without the need for a landline connection.
The next upgrade took place in January when D&E upgraded the network and installed a new server to replace the ball club's aging equipment. Software was then installed by TicketReturn, a Web-based, ticket purchasing software company. To interconnect the system and manage seat sales, D&E connected the new system to the Senators' local area network (LAN) and installed a Web server to provide a highly reliable, manageable and scalable Web solution.
Harrisburg Senators On-line Ticketing
The final step at the box office was to set up printers for printing the tickets when they were ordered over the phone or put in will-call by on-line ordering.
D&E is now working with the Senators to install wireless handheld scanners to be used at admission gates. In addition to verifying the authenticity of a ticket, the scanners will collect important data on ticket sales and transmit the data to the Senators' upgraded information technology system via wireless access points.
Vander Woude said the Senators are ready for an exciting season and welcome on-line ticket sales as a new convenience for fans. Last year, the Senators had one of their top seasons in attendance with more than 250,000 tickets sold.
