West Ham will be scrapping emailed tickets containing Barcodes and QR codes in favor of NFC electronic tickets this season.
Season ticket holders will no longer be able to print off tickets for match days.
The club has written to over 50,000 season ticket holders to inform them of the change.
The club says ‘After successful trials throughout last season, we’ll be using NFC Season Tickets for the 2022/23 campaign. This means you’ll get into London Stadium by tapping your phone on a reader, making it even easier and more convenient to get in and watch the Hammers.
As a Season Ticket holder in the West Stand, your ticket will be sent out following the formal approval of the capacity increase to 62,500.
Please be assured that you will still receive your Season Ticket in plenty of time ahead of our first game against Manchester City.
The Club is also conscious that a small number of Season Ticket Holders may not have access to a smartphone and we will continue to be inclusive and make sure we do everything we can to support all of our fans.
Our accessibility Season Ticket Holders who do not have access to a smartphone will be able to request a physical Stadium access card with their photograph on ahead of the 2022/23 season.
For any queries or support around stadium access contact the Ticket Office on 0333 030 1966 or email ticketoffice@westhamunited.co.
NFC Season Tickets can only be used on phones, and can’t be printed off.
Read the guide below so that you’re ready to add the Season Ticket to your phone when it arrives.’
This isn’t right – the club should have provided the option when renewals were sent out for people to request a physical season ticket so that all of this could have been sorted at the stage of buying the ticket, rather than two weeks before the start of the new season. This says to me that the club are trying to jump this on us, and try to force everyone to think “oh I can’t be bothered to try and arrange this”. It feels very much like the club are almost washing their hands of anyone without a smartphone.
They no doubt are doing that. But then the whole world is washing its hands of anyone without a smartphone. In fact it’s also washing its hands of anyone with an obsolete phone or who lacks the tech savvie to cope stress-free with technology like Google Wallet and NFC digital passes and tickets. It’s ageist and it’s discriminatory, but it’s “progress”. Welcome to the 21st century.