Most professional teams have stopped offering paper tickets altogether, yet U.S. sports fans still say they’d rather hold a physical stub. In a CivicScience survey, 63% of adults with a ticket preference chose paper over digital, despite the near-universal shift to mobile entry (excluding no opinion). The finding speaks to more than nostalgia—it’s a window into age, fandom, and consumer behavior.
The ticket preference divide uncovers fascinating insights about different types of sports fans:
The Age Factor: Young adults (18-29) are perfectly split at 50-50 between paper and digital, showing they’re comfortable with either format. But preference for paper tickets grows dramatically with age—30-44 year-olds prefer paper at 56%, 45-64 year-olds at 67%, and those 65+ show overwhelming paper preference at 91%. This isn’t just about technology comfort; older fans may value the tangible memento aspect of physical tickets.
Gender Patterns: Women show slightly stronger preference for digital tickets at 40% compared to men’s 33%, suggesting they may prioritize convenience and phone-based organization over the collectible aspects that might appeal more to male sports fans.
The Fandom Connection: NBA fans are significantly more open to digital tickets at 42% compared to 20% among non-fans. Non-NBA fans, on the other hand, strongly prefer paper at 80%. This could reflect the NBA’s younger, more tech-savvy fanbase, or the league’s emphasis on mobile-first experiences and social media integration.
Sports Attendance Habits: Nearly one-quarter of those who prefer digital sports tickets say they go to a sports event at least twice per month or more, outpacing paper-ticket fans by 5pp.
Consumer Psychology: Digital ticket preferrers are more likely to be planned shoppers when it comes to online retail shopping at 44%, while paper ticket fans lean toward mix between planned and spontaneous shopping at 48%. This hints that digital adopters bring the same forward-thinking mindset to both ticket purchases and retail shopping.
Spending Patterns: The most careful spenders prefer digital tickets at 35%, while paper ticket fans are more evenly distributed across spending habits. Digital preferrers may appreciate the reduced risk of losing expensive tickets.
The paper ticket preference isn’t just nostalgia—it represents a desire for tangible experiences in an increasingly digital world. For many fans, that physical ticket stub serves as a keepsake, a conversation starter, and proof of “being there” for memorable moments. In sports, where tradition and ritual matter deeply, the simple choice between paper and pixels reveals how fans balance convenience with sentiment.
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This article’s data comes solely from CivicScience’s database, which contains nearly 700,000 poll questions and 5 billion consumer insights.