SHE'S GOT A TICKET TO RIDE

Actually she (or he) doesn't. Tickets don't exist anymore. I used to keep selected ticket stubs. They're memorabilia; for a reader like me, they also double as treasured bookmarks. I have my stub from the first time the Mets beat Sandy Koufax (Tug McGraw was the winning pitcher, back in the rare says when he occasionally started--BTW no one beat Koufax often). Not just baseball. I have my ticket from the Knicks last championship season (I know, we're talking ancient history), when they played the Pistons. Ticket price? $5.75. That's about as ancient as the idea of the Knicks winning a championship.

Concert stubs, Broadway plays, seeing Star Wars during its premier season, heck even admission to the Gerald Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, when I was supposedly at a business seminar (shh!). Lots of memories; lots of books to be served as place holders.

Until recently. Now everything is digital. I can't place a collection of disparate electrons in a book. Nor can I gazed fondly on the electrical current and recall thrilling times at the ballpark (theater, museum, etc.)

I'm not sure the reason for the switch. I don't think the owners have become environmentally conscious and care about slaughtering another tree. Nor do I see that security is enhanced by virtue of electronic ticketing. I do see a greed factor: ticket stock costs money. Field level seats for the Mets runs $151.50 (includes $7 processing fee), so of course it makes sense to squeeze a few extra shekels out of a fan shelling out over a hundred bucks already. When you're paying Aaron Judge or Patrick Mahomes or whomever tens of millions of dollars per year, those few pennies per ticket stock makes quite a difference, I suppose.

I get greed. It's at the heart of capitalism. But there is a trade off between customer satisfaction (even by way of inexpensive memorabilia) and the almighty dollar. Squeezing for every penny can be a short sighted business strategy. Something to think about. Next they'll tell me they're not serving food on airplane flights!