Key Takeaways
• Paper tickets have largely been replaced by digital formats like smartphone barcodes, with companies like Ryanair fully phasing out printed tickets to prioritize convenience and sustainability.
• The Washington Capitals are reintroducing collectible paper tickets for the 2025–2026 season, tapping into fan nostalgia and the appeal of tangible keepsakes – especially during a milestone year for Alexander Ovechkin.
• These retro-style tickets incorporate NFC chips for modern functionality, illustrating how print can coexist with technology and remain relevant in the memorabilia and collectibles market.
Kids used to use shoeboxes for this type of thing: You’d go to the concert, sporting event, show or movie – any event that gave you a ticket for admission. Then you’d come home and stow away that ticket stub in your shoebox. Maybe you’d pin it with all the others to a corkboard on the wall, and you’d have a visual representation of all the fun things you’ve done over time.
At least, that’s how it used to be. In the shift to a digital-first landscape, paper tickets have mostly gone by the wayside in favor of barcodes on smartphone wallets or in email inboxes as smartphone use became even more prevalent as time passed.
Just this week, the budget airline Ryanair announced it would fully phase out paper tickets in favor of its app on the basis that “almost 100% of passengers have smartphones, and we want to move everybody onto that smartphone technology,” per Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary in an interview according to The Independent.
In the same interview, O’Leary said that it was part of a push for the company to be “faster, smarter and greener.”
It’s convenient, yes. There’s no denying that. But it does take away just a bit of sentimentality from the world. The good news is that some companies remain true to their paper roots: To counteract the news of Ryanair ditching printed tickets, the Washington Capitals NHL team is bringing them back for a limited time for the sole purpose of providing a keepsake the old-fashioned way.
The franchise announced that for the 2025-2026 season, all season ticket holders will receive collectible tickets for their home games. Each ticket shows Caps star Alexander Ovechkin, along with other teammates or even competitors, like Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby for when the Pens come to D.C. The point, though not explicitly said by the Caps organization, is that it’s the last year of “Ovi’s” contract with the Capitals and, maybe, the end to his historic NHL run.
“These printed tickets follow one of the most memorable seasons in our history, and we’re thrilled to present them to you as another token of our appreciation and celebration of Capitals hockey,” the team sent season ticket holders in an email, obtained by the fan blog Russian Machine Never Breaks.
Caps owner Ted Leonsis posted on X about how, in this modern age, paper tickets count as innovation, citing the vinyl boom as an example.
Trends are cyclical, and nostalgia is strong. So, it is safe to say that returning to something old, like a good throwback uniform scheme, creates demand like it’s a brand-new thing.
This is such an easy win for the team. There’s no greater currency for a sports fan than being able to say “I was there,” and having the paper ticket is proof. It speaks to the power and continued prevalence of print in the sports merchandise world, alongside sports cards. Writing for his new venture Cllct, which focuses on the memorabilia and collectibles marketplace in sports, former ESPN analyst Darren Rovell said that paper tickets were the second-fastest growing sector of Professional Sports Authenticator collectibles grading – a group that grades and authenticates sports memorabilia and collectibles – in 2024. He also noted that the world’s largest grader had to create a separate office just to handle the demand for people seeking to have their tickets graded from memorable nights in the stadium, ballpark or arena.
The Digital Compromise
What makes these Caps tickets even more interesting to someone looking at them through the lens of print media’s place in the modern world is that they are anything but antiquated. One season ticket holder took to the Washington Capitals subreddit to post about how the tickets each have an NFC chip printed into them – a bridge between modern technology and simple paper printing of the past.
Rovell’s post on Cllct indicates that the chip will be used like a barcode for ticket holders to tap for entry into the arena.
Another Reddit user, incidentally, pointed to a missed opportunity from the Caps – neglecting a new promotional product for the new season:
“How come they didn’t include a lanyard,” the user wrote. “Lame. Now I have to unretire one of my old ones.”
Who says people don’t hold onto their promo items?
