PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County commissioners have asked for more information on a potential new ticketing system for the county fair, including how the recommended system compares with others.
Don Crawford, director of county parks, fair and facilities, presented a proposed three-year agreement with Afton Tickets Inc. of Portland, Ore., at the commissioners’ Monday work session. He will return with an expanded presentation at the commissioners’ May 1 work session, set for 9 a.m. in the commissioners meeting room in the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
“The challenge we have is we are cash only, which is several hundred thousand dollars a year,” Crawford said. “There’s a lot of risk associated with that. The daily reconciliation also is cumbersome.
“They do a fantastic job, but we are at the point where we are looking at updating,” he said.
It would be a marketing system on which the vendor builds a website and sells tickets from there, Crawford said.
This system also can process a transaction in 10 to 15 seconds versus 45 seconds for a typical point-of-sale system, which is significant when fair admission lines get long, Crawford said.
It also will allow online preseason marketing and pre-sales so they can offer more discounts, such as free admission for children on Thursdays, buy three days and get one free and discounts for those 80 and older as well as veterans and active duty service members, he said.
Crawford said there are two potential fee schedules: online Afton service fees or discounted box office Afton service fees. He emphasized that fairgoers still would be able to pay in cash under either system.
The first fee schedule would charge the following:
• 75-cent service fee for admission and add-on items up to $5
• 99-cent service fee for admission and add-on items up to $8 plus 3 percent of the ticket’s face value after Afton’s fee
• $1.29 service fee on admission and add-on items of $8.01 or greater plus 3 percent of the ticket’s face value after Afton’s fee
The second fee schedule would charge the following:
• 50-cent service fee on admission up to $5
• $1 service fee on admission from $5.01 to $29.99
• $2 service fee on admission of $30 or greater
• 4.9 percent of the ticket face value after Afton’s fee for non-admission add-on items
• $1 service fee for parking/camping plus 3 percent of the ticket face after Afton’s fee
Card processing fees would be in addition to Afton’s fee and the county could choose to pass that on to the fairgoer or absorb it.
Crawford said Afton’s advantage is the county wouldn’t have to pay $20,000 to $50,000 to buy, secure and maintain the equipment.
“We send the equipment back when we are done,” Crawford said. “It’s a user fee, so there’s no charge to the county. If we use their recommended merchant, Afton could help us immediately. There’s no cost to the county. It’s user-based. We could market online.”
Crawford said his goal would be to reach 40,000 fairgoers so the admission revenue would pay for the fair and it doesn’t have to depend upon the county’s general fund.
The commissioners questioned the approach of having fairgoers pay more, questioned the impact of the online marketing and wanted to see a comparison with other potential ticketing and marketing systems.
“I’d like to see a comparison because we are charging fairgoers,” Commissioner Randy Johnson said. “They pay for the whole thing. I’m all for credit cards, but it’s how it is put together. I’m not exactly here with Afton. I wish I had seen all comparisons before today.”
“This is a marketing-heavy presentation. It’s borne on behalf of the ticketpayer and focused on building marketing. It’s not what I expect to see,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said.
Crawford said Afton would build its website and market it as synergistic with the county’s.
“It has a list of other fairs so they can steer people to our fair. It’s heavy on marketing. We can’t have the exposure with cash, which keeps me up nights,” he said.
Reconciliation is an issue but mainly counting cash has its pitfalls, Crawford said. This system could allow the fair to reduce by 25 percent the $40,000 in staff time used to count money, he said.
“I appreciate QR codes, but I have a simple business brain. I wish you had shown that comparison. I don’t see that here, that’s why pushing back. More information is necessary as we go forward,” Johnson said.
Ozias said they need credit card processing to be as seamless as possible, but he would appreciate more info on the comparison leading to this recommendation.
“The primary benefit is marketing. I’d like to see how this is connected to our marketing. What are we getting?” he said.
Commissioner Mike French said this would reduce the fair’s cash exposure and increase attendance, but wifi can’t get them there.
“If you have a line of five customers and slow credit card processing, it is frustrating,” he said.
Crawford said this sort of ticketing and marketing system is the industry standard for a county fair, but he plans to provide additional information at the May 1 work session.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at brian.gawley@soundpublishing.com.
