Progress I don’t like: I miss old school ticket stubs from sports, movies, concerts

Tim Walters, Florida Today
·4 min read
Ticket stubs from movies in the mid-1990s bring back memories of movies I saw when I was in high school and college.
Ticket stubs from movies in the mid-1990s bring back memories of movies I saw when I was in high school and college.

I went to a sporting event recently where I received an old school Ticketmaster ticket.

You know the ones I’m talking about.

They’re 5.5 inches by 2 inches, made of some sort of thin cardboard or thick paper, and show you the event name, time, location, your seat, etc…

The sad thing is, it’s the first such ticket like this I’ve received in years.

When ordering most events online, you’ll either get a bar code that can be scanned off your phone when you arrive at the event or a full-page printout that looks nothing like what a ticket should be.

My wife and I saw comedian Jim Gaffigan at the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando in December 2021 and we didn’t even have the option of printing anything out. Our tickets came live about 90 minutes before the show, and we had them scanned to get in. After that, they were gone into the ether.

The only evidence I have that I went is a confirmation email that continues to get pushed down in my account until one day it will be gone.

I miss getting my 5.5x2 keepsake, as well as the smaller, more square version you used to get from movie theaters.

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Printing out your own tickets just isn't the same. They're big, get easily beat up while folded in your pocket at the event and don't have the charm of the 5.5-inch by 2-inch ticket, like seen above from a Philadelphia Phillies game.
Printing out your own tickets just isn't the same. They're big, get easily beat up while folded in your pocket at the event and don't have the charm of the 5.5-inch by 2-inch ticket, like seen above from a Philadelphia Phillies game.

I understand why they do it the way they do it — it helps cut down on scalped or fake tickets.

But I also want something to remember the night by, and these days I’m rarely the event T-shirt or trinket person. I have enough crap I don’t use.

But my ticket book is something special to me. It’s a 1.5-inch thick binder that contains most every ticket I’ve accumulated during my life. Tickets are taped to a sheet of paper and put behind non-acidic acrylic pages.

I still have a ticket for the first spring training game I ever attended in March of 1991 between the Reds and Red Sox in Winter Haven.

I went with my best friend Chris Mackiewicz and I got Eric Davis’ autograph that day. I also got a ball thrown into the crowd by a budding young star named Mo Vaughn.

Some of my favorite sporting event tickets to look back on include:

My first Orlando Magic game on Jan. 21 1992, against the Minnesota Timberwolves. My grandfather won them at a drawing at the Merritt Island Denny’s.

For the first time, seeing my favorite team, the Chicago Cubs, play live in Miami in 1996, again with my friend Chris.

My home ticket stubs from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium from Gators games in 1996, the year they won the national championship.

My ringside seats for WCW Monday Nitro in 1999 at the O’Connell Center in Gainesville.

And a ticket stub for the final spring training game held at Dodgertown in Vero Beach on March 17, 2008, and yes, I was there again with my friends Chris. I could go on.

This 5.5-inch by 2-inch ticket stub is from the last spring training game ever played by the Los Angeles Dodgers in Dodgertown in Vero Beach on March 17, 2008.
This 5.5-inch by 2-inch ticket stub is from the last spring training game ever played by the Los Angeles Dodgers in Dodgertown in Vero Beach on March 17, 2008.

I also have movie ticket stubs from many great movies, although many of these types of tickets have faded over time to the point some are unreadable.

Yet, I still have a nice “Jurassic Park” ticket from 1993 at the Merritt Island AMC, as well as one for the premier of “Star Wars: the Phantom Menace” in 1999 at Regal Cinemas in Gainesville.

Perhaps my favorite is the commemorative ticket stub I received during a special early screening of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” in Dec. 2019, at Downtown Disney's AMC Theater. My wife had no interest in seeing it, so I brought … my mom.

I also look back on concert stubs and smile.

There was my first live show in 1994: Pantera with opener Biohazard at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach.

Perhaps the best day-long concert I ever attended was OzzFest 98 in Orlando, where Black Sabbath reunited on stage after Ozzy’s set. I also loved seeing Megadeth, Tool and Limp Bizkit, where singer Fred Durst emerged from a giant toilet to begin their set.

I was privileged to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 30th anniversary concert in Gainesville in Sept. 2006.

And more recently, I saw the opening of Iron Maiden’s North American Tour in Miami with my older brother in 2019. Through the magic of Facebook, we ended up reuniting with a cousin we hadn’t seen in two decades, as well as his fiancé. The four of us are going to see Iron Maiden again together when they visit Tampa in October.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

Each ticket I have brings back a memory. It makes me remember where I was and who I was with.

Yes, I know Ticketmaster has an option to buy a Collector’s Ticket, but it’s just not the same.

I just want that free little keepsake that I can tape into a book and look back at as I get older so I can remember all the good times.

Walters can be reached at twalters@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Digital tickets don’t provide meaning like cardboard rectangles do