The project at a glance
My role: lead the selection and rollout of a new ticketing system as the board member responsible for marketing and communications strategy.
The challenge: simplify purchasing for fans and improve the club’s control over offers, data and matchday operations.
My decisions: compare four suppliers against shared requirements, test two finalists and assess total cost, integration and usability. I coordinated suppliers, administration and marketing.
The delivered result: a new solution went live in 2021, with offer configuration, equipped sales points and staff training. In the historical match example analysed here, 613 of 1,250 individual tickets were sold online: 49.04%. This describes one match’s sales mix, not the isolated effect of the system change.
2012–2015: supporting the rebuilding
During the rebuilding period, the club used pre-printed tickets and also sold online through PrestaShop. Successive promotions and the return to professional football changed its needs.
From 2015: organising stadium access
The return to the Challenge League was in 2015. Ticketing evolved with requirements for numbered seating and stadium access control.
2021: selecting a more integrated ticketing system
In 2021, I led the comparison of ticketing solutions to connect online sales, CRM and fan experience. The criteria included integration, offer flexibility, customer data, total cost and staff support. The new system went live that year.
The ticketing selection process
Defining needs
Limitations of the former system
The former system limited integration with the club website and app, as well as packages combining tickets, catering and merchandise. We needed to simplify the buying journey while retaining control of data and matchday operations.
Requirements specifications
I structured the specifications around six groups of requirements:
- Fan journey: mobile purchasing, stadium seating plan, digital tickets and season-ticket renewals.
- Offers and payment: promotions, packages, hospitality and suitable payment options.
- Integration: WordPress, the app, data interfaces and existing access control.
- CRM and measurement: data exports, segmentation, campaigns and sales tracking.
- Operations: tills, printers, scanners, training and matchday support.
- Economics: total cost, contractual terms and season simulations.
These describe consultation requirements, not confirmation that every feature was deployed.
Comparing solutions
Four suppliers responded to the same specifications, compliance matrix and two season simulations. Presentations and demonstrations were compared with real use cases. Two finalists then took part in testing.
Selection
I organised the decision around comparable criteria: requirements coverage, public and staff usability, integration and total cost. The four responses were assessed against the same season scenarios before testing two finalists.
The assessment looked beyond the sales demonstration to whether club staff could operate the solution on matchdays.
Deployment
Deployment combined offer configuration, connected sales points, staff training and communications to fans.
Installation & Configuration
After selection, we needed to explain the change and train administrative and ticket-office staff. We connected and equipped the tills and club shop for ticket sales.
The supplier provided on-site assistance for the first home match to answer questions and resolve operational issues promptly.
Pricing
Ticket prices reflected seating categories and stadium areas, with concessions for season-ticket holders, students and children. I compared prices across Swiss clubs to inform our positioning.
Promotion
We explained the change through the website, social media and emails to supporters. Purchase journey and sales tracking then helped identify friction points and adjustments.
Sales strategy
Ticket promotion combined digital and physical channels.
Digital: the website, social media, promotional videos, prediction competitions with a partner, Facebook match events, newsletters and geographically targeted paid social campaigns.
Local presence: regional press, radio and television, match programmes, posters and screens on public transport.
The mix addressed audiences with different habits, supported the club’s local presence and created opportunities for interaction.
Evaluation and indicators
The example below concerns Xamax–Yverdon Sport, matchday 25, in the historical data from the original 2023 dossier. It separates sales, attendance and the buying journey to identify improvement opportunities. Revenue figures are not published.
Ticket rights and actual attendance
- 3,754 admission rights issued, including season tickets.
- 2,029 scanned entries: 54.05% of issued rights.
- 1,725 unused rights.
- 1,250 individual tickets sold, with 1,095 scanned and 155 unused.
- The other 934 scanned entries were season-ticket holders: 2,029 − 1,095.
An admission right and actual attendance measure different things.
Ticket-office and online sales
Of 1,250 individual tickets, 637 were sold at the ticket office (50.96%) and 613 online (49.04%). The difference was 24 tickets, or 1.92 percentage points of sales share.
Overall conversion
83 transactions across 8,791 sessions: 0.94%. This describes the report’s scope. Match timing, tracked channels and measurement settings must be considered before judging the campaign.
The purchase journey
- 789 product-view sessions out of 8,791: 8.98%.
- 116 add-to-cart sessions out of 8,791: 1.32%.
- 98 checkouts from 116 carts: 84.48%, with 15.52% exiting at this stage.
- 83 transactions from 98 checkouts: 84.69%, with 15.31% exiting.
Each rate uses the previous stage as its denominator, except the first two, which use all sessions.
Social media campaign
The Facebook and Instagram campaign aimed to build event awareness and linked to the event. The report showed a reach of 2,312 people and a cost per click of CHF 0.19. No attributed sale in that report does not establish no effect: campaign objective, journey to ticketing and tracking limits must be distinguished.
Attribution and channels
The report recorded 73 assisted conversions for 83 transactions. Channels can appear more than once in a journey, so their percentages overlap and cannot be added as sales shares. Moving between xamax.ch and the ticketing domain may also create internal referrals. Before reallocating budgets, I would check cross-domain tracking and conversion definitions.
About this experience
My role
My leadership role
As the board member responsible for marketing and communications strategy, I connected the needs of the club, fans and internal users. I scoped the consultation, coordinated suppliers and supported change with the administration and marketing teams.
This cross-functional coordination is distinct from line management of all contributors. It requires clear responsibilities, priorities and decision criteria.