BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) In the age of mobile ticketing, it's pretty difficult to save a ticket stub as a souvenir.
Many of us have been collecting tickets to memorable events our whole lives. Some are in a box, or a binder. Often they are framed as a collage on a wall.
A ticket is real and tangible. It's a bookmark of our lives. It reminds
us of where we've been or who we were with.
With most events today, you either get a bar code that can be scanned off
your phone when you arrive at the event or a full-page printout that looks nothing like a ticket.
"I've really missed it," said Dan Gigante, co-founder of Went, a local startup
that is bringing back ticket nostalgia. "We thought it seemed like the perfect time to bring it back, at the start of the Bills season."
Gigante and his wife Katie Krawczyk, created a way where people can turn event tickets into customized, artist-designed, physical souvenir tickets for sports games, concerts and other events
"It extends the fan experience, to have a collectible you can keep," added Gigante. "Most of the time its going to be for people who went to a game. But I'm going to a friend's house tonight and I want to capture that on a ticket. The ticket will be customized to say 'Bob and Heather's house' as the location where I watched it."
Went is starting out by offering tickets to the September 8th Bills vs. Rams game.
The customized ticket sells for $18. Ten percent of all sales earned from commemorative ticket purchases will go to an appointed charity. For Buffalo football tickets, 10 percent will be donated directly to the Patricia Allen Fund, supporting the work of the John R. Oishei Children's Hospital's pediatric critical care team.
Future tickets for the Buffalo football season will be designed by a different artist each week. The company is currently developing plans to offer commemorative tickets for non-sports events.
