January 4th, 2016 at 6:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka Remember when the Dodgers broke the news to season ticket holders back in 2014 that they would no longer be receiving a booklet containing their hard tickets for the entire season because new ownership decided to go digital? That their most loyal fans would now “be able” to print their own “paperless” tickets at home? Or they would now have the “benefit” of being able to display their tickets on their smartphones for expedient scanning and then given a small thermal paper receipt reminiscent of a ’90s-era fax? We were told this was the wave of the future and that everybody’s doing it, and told (in no uncertain terms) that if we didn’t like it… tough.
“Paperless tickets are part of our heightened efforts to enable Dodger fans to manage their season seats better than ever,” said Dodgers President and CEO Kasten in a written statement at the time. “The benefits include: receiving your tickets sooner, being able to print them at home or at your office, the ease of transferring them to family, friends, business associates or clients with free forwarding, and the ability to use them via your smartphone to enter the stadium.”
Like many MLB ballparks, the Dodgers implemented mobile ticketing in 2014; however, printed hard tickets were still available to season ticket holders upon request and at no additional charge.
Although the public and social media outcry to this extremely unpopular announcement was immediate and at times heated, it also brought with it an abrupt end to a chapter in baseball history that had been around for more than a century – collecting ticket stubs.
“It makes me feel sad,” said 64-year-old Will Isabella, a lifelong Brooklyn and L.A. Dodger fan who was born, raised and still lives in New York and occasionally travels to L.A. to attend games at Dodger Stadium. “I’ve been collecting ticket stubs from Dodger games since I was 12 years old.”
Sure enough, just as The Curse of the Billy Goat did to the Cubs at Wrigley Field in 1945, The Curse of the Paperless Ticket happened at Dodger Stadium after the elimination of hard tickets, and it came as absolutely no surprise to one die-hard Dodger fan.
On June 18, 2014 and as if fulfilling a prophecy condemning Kasten and Vice President of Ticket Sales David Siegel, Clayton Kershaw did exactly as C. Alcantara had predicted – he threw the first no-hitter at Dodger Stadium since former Dodger Ramon Martinez did so on July 14, 1994. And while every Dodger fan on the planet was ecstatic over Kershaw’s no-no, you can pretty much bet that in a back office somewhere in the bowels of Dodger Stadium, Kasten and Siegel were muttering the words “Oh ****.”
In a pathetic attempt to make things right for the 35,000 happy yet hard ticketless season ticket holders, the Dodgers sent out a downloadable paper ticket commemorating Kershaw’s historic achievement that was, in their words, “suitable for framing.”
Yeah, right.
The “suitable for framing” commemorative paper ticket was nothing more than an ad for Unocal 76 and Sports Authority and it was anything but suitable for framing.
Suitable for framing?
So why cry over milk that was spilled almost two years ago, you ask?
Season ticket holders are going to love the answer to this one, which I must preface with a confession.
As soon as I learned of the Dodgers decision to go paperless in 2014, I called my season ticket representative and complained (ad nauseam) to him. After patiently hearing me out, he told me that they would still send out printed hard tickets to season ticket holders requesting them but added that these tickets would be basic generic tickets with no fancy graphics on them. This was fine by me and I jumped all over this well-kept secret, which I shared with several of my closest season ticket holder-friends. Suddenly, all was right in the universe again.
…or so I thought.
This past week after renewing my season seats for the upcoming 2016 season online, I sent an email to my season ticket rep asking that I please be sent hard tickets again. Because ThinkBlueLA is a family-oriented blog site I won’t tell you what I said when I received his reply to my email several days later.
“Glad to hear you got [your season ticket renewal] taken care of. If you want the printed tickets, this year we are charging $150 per seat and allowing any season ticket holder to get them if they want.”
Are you kidding me? One hundred and fifty dollars per seat for what undoubtedly costs them no more than $10 per seat for the entire year?
If season ticket holders want hard tickets in 2016, they will have to pay an additional $150 per seat. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
When I responded to this email I was… well… let’s just say a little less than civil. I pointed out that this was “fertilizer” (as Vinny would say) and an obvious attempt to shove their paperless / digital e-ticketing system up our noses (although I referenced a different part of the anatomy). To his credit, my rep didn’t even try to deny this and, in fact, readily acknowledged it.
“Unfortunately you are right, they want everyone using the digital tickets and don’t want anyone to pay [the $150] to have us to print tickets (but I am sure some people will still choose to have them printed and pay). Think about what you want us to do and let me know. Sorry to pass the bad news along.”
While this is indeed bad news to me, it is tolerable. But what about those season ticket holders who do not have smartphones for whatever their reasons? Unless these folks are still permitted to get hard tickets, they are going to be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
But alas, it is what it is and life goes on. But one can only imaging what a Dodger Dog is going to cost next season.
Posted in 
kershaws no-hitter! Also more importantly the day we found out my wife was pregnant.
Very cool!
they have increased my seat prices every year. To get a lesser annual increase, we had to sign a multi-year contract this year
Now that is something I had not heard about. Thanks for the heads up.
This modern world technology will eventually keep me from going to the game. That is if they ever close the ticket windows. I’m happy we can still purchase the “hard” tickets at the ballparks.
That most likely will never change but you run the risk of a sellout.
If this is truly the wave of the future, then I suppose one could pull up the digital e-ticket on their device, take a screen capture of their e-ticket (I thought my Dodgers e-tickets looked pretty cool), then print the image, notate it and frame it with the others. It would certainly look better than their “suitable for framing” ticket.
I know we’ll never get the hard tickets back. This suggestion is just another option that would look better than the official, ad-infested, team rendering.
I’ve made my peace with us not getting the hard tickets and I’ve accepted the “wave of the future” but it doesn’t make sense to increase the price on tickets and take the hard tickets away from us. Now I have to spend on ink and paper for my collection book. From 2012 (my STH rookie year) to 2014, I had an increase of $200 so I had to relocate to another section.
I guess the increase is for someone to pdf the tickets….
So I was just told (2019) that I cannot have the $150/seat option, it is no longer offered. They apparently still provide these for those grandfathered in. Forget my account is old enough, the option we had to dig around for is apparently off the menu now. They need to solve this and have something, retroactive ones for big wins and the rare perfect game or no-no… but then these are for Dodger dates – forget your first game with your son/daugther/grandchild/etc – the game that had another special meaning… its really sad there is no intention to try and solve for this. I’d gladly give up the other “perks” they give so STH, they are pretty slim. This really is such a drag.
I too collect game tickets. While the other playoff bound teams will produce beautiful tickets, the Dodgers will remain digital. Digital tickets are not collectible. Go onto eBay and search baseball tickets. Just look at 2017 to the present and you will see all of the beautiful hard tickets being made by the other teams. The Dodgers need to at least produce hard tickets for the playoffs. During the season, they need to make hard tickets optional.
i agree! it was bad enough when they stopped giving us the media guide (although they continued to charge us). when they first went digital, the cell service was so bad at RF res, it was a fiasco. there is nothing green about it when we have to use an entire page to print our own tickets. they still charge us a handling fee. what are they handling?? they dont care about season ticket holders and have run off 85% of the people that sat within 10 seats of me. probably 60% of the people in the first 10 rows of my section are gone. now those tickets sell on stubhub. they are reeling in the glory years but are losing an entire generation between this and the blackouts. if todays kids dont get romantic about the game, tomorrows parents wont be buying tickets, jerseys and overpriced food.
Me and my wife are looking at going to a Dodger game this upcoming season and would like/hope to get a cardstock ticket for our baseball scrapbook as we have one from all the other stadiums we have been to so far ( 12 so far ). My question is, is there any way to get one when tickets go on sale or do we have to take a chance getting one game day at the ticket booth ( don’t really want to take this chance )? If I get tickets over the phone can I have them mailed to me? Thanks for any information.