Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ticketing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board weighs family passes, digital ticketing after parents cite rising costs
Summary
Board members and staff discussed options to reduce gate costs for families — including family or individual passes, student-ID entry, and digital platforms — and asked staff to return with cost scenarios after concerns about vendor convenience fees and revenue neutrality.
Paola Board of Education members spent the early portion of their meeting debating whether to offer family or individual passes for home athletic events after members said cumulative gate fees are straining some households.
"It's $24," Speaker 1 said of a typical two-adult, two-child household visit, adding the total can rise to "almost a hundred dollars a week" for families attending multiple contests. Board members framed the issue as primarily a cost problem rather than inconvenience.
District staff said the district raised adult admission from $5 to $7 to cover increasing expenses and moved student pricing from $3 to $5. "We added the $2 on," Speaker 2 said, and noted football and basketball gate receipts historically subsidize other sports while most other activities run at a deficit.
The board discussed technology and enforcement options. Staff said the district previously offered family passes but discontinued them because they were rarely used and prone to duplication; the district switched to a hard plastic card with an annually changed design to reduce fraud. Speaker 2 said any future pass should be "something substantial that can't be replicated." Speaker 1 proposed low-tech options such as a punch card; others favored a digital solution.
Members also reviewed third-party platforms. "There are fees to that program," Speaker 7 said of GoFan, describing a convenience fee structure: $1 for tickets under $10 and $1 plus 5% for tickets over $10. Board members expressed concern about shifting gate revenue to an outside vendor or passing convenience fees on to families and discussed limiting a vendor to season passes while keeping general admission at the gate.
The board asked staff to return with additional research on price scenarios and program design: per-pass and family-cap pricing, how many home games a pass would have to cover, projected revenue impacts, and options for student-ID-based free entry for eligible students. The board did not adopt a policy at the meeting but directed staff to gather data and model options for future consideration.
Next steps: staff will present cost scenarios and proposals for individual versus family passes and possible digital implementations at a later meeting.
