The Million Dollar Ticket Stubs: How AR is Resurrecting Sports Memorabilia.

Just last week, Eventshop, a Nashville-based company that creates AR-enhanced commemorative tickets and memorabilia for sports teams and events, acquired AR company Interactive Images, an AR technology firm that enables fans to upload personal content into interactive experiences, with strong ties to the music and entertainment industry.

The Lost Art of Ticket Collecting - Why should you care?

TL;DR: The pandemic destroyed the concert stub on your bedroom wall. Physical tickets went from universal to nearly extinct in less than three years, but what we lost in nostalgia, AR technology is now bringing back. While most sporting event tickets are now digital, fans are rediscovering the joy of collecting through improved memorabilia that combines the best of both worlds. For teams and artists, it can offer a new commercial, with fan data and sponsor integrations all wrapped into a $15 upsell. And with this being rolled out at the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics, we’ll very soon see if nostalgia is back in fashion. In full: In 2019, physical tickets still dominated sporting events, but by 2022, they had become practically extinct.

The numbers tell a story of rapid change:

• SeatGeek saw mobile ticket transactions explode from 7% in 2012 to 68% by 2019.

• U.S. college athletics went from almost zero digital-only teams to hundreds in just months during COVID.

• The Premier League has mandated 100% digital ticketing for all clubs by the 2026/27 season.

The benefits were undeniable: lower costs (no printing or postage), enhanced security (rotating barcodes, fraud prevention), valuable data collection for teams, and support for sustainability and zero waste targets. Sports teams and venues saved millions. Fans gained convenience. However, something intangible was lost: the physical thing that proved "I was there."

That's where Eventshop and Interactive Images identified an opportunity. While digital ticketing resolved operational headaches, it also created a void. Fans and concert-goers loved collecting moments and memories from their favourite games or events, and the physical ticket remained the easiest way to achieve this.

The new player? Commemorative tickets that do more than sit in a drawer. They unlock AR highlights, house personal memories, and transform passive souvenirs into interactive experiences. By the way, they haven’t just brought back ‘tickets’; they’ve created data-rich, sponsor-friendly, infinitely customisable memory platforms that generate a new revenue stream for artists, sports teams, and venues.

And with the addition of Interactive Images, it will allow fans to upload their content for use within the commemorative ticket experiences. This offers a more personalised and interactive way for fans to commemorate events.

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The Commemorative Ticket Business Model: Multiple Revenue Streams

Teams and artists can now turn a digital ticket into a $15 collectable, unlocking new sponsorship integrations worth millions and creating secondary markets that generate revenue long after the event is over. Fans can reclaim the memorabilia and nostalgia lost with the death of physical tickets, providing a real memory bank that is far superior to all the grainy 15-second videos recorded on their phones.

According to The Street, 16% of US fans surveyed who attend sporting events spend on merchandise. Using this as our baseline for commemorative ticket adoption, the revenue potential becomes clear:

NFL Example:

• Average 2024 attendance: 68,500 per game

• 16% adoption rate: 10,960 fans

• $15 upgrade price: $164,400 per game

• 8 regular season home games: $1.3 million annually per team

This does not include new sponsor activation revenue and is purely direct-to-consumer revenue. Also, this is just the baseline. Premium games (playoffs, rivalries, milestone events) could command upgrades of $25 to $40, with even higher adoption rates.

For a league like the NFL with 32 teams, even conservative adoption translates to $42 million in new annual revenue. That's found money with virtually no additional operational costs. (This is indicative, and not all regular-season games will drive demand for the new commemorative ticket upgrade, but you understand the concept.)

Scaling the Future of Nostalgia

As we approach the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 LA Olympics, Eventshop and Interactive Images are betting that fans not only want to remember the experience of being there but also want to own a piece of the moment that appreciates in value over time.

With major leagues already mandating digital ticketing and younger fans expecting everything to be interactive, AR-enhanced collectables may serve as a bridge between nostalgia and innovation.

The true test will be whether this model can scale from early adopters to mainstream fans. If they nail the execution at FIFA and the Olympics, we could be looking at a blueprint for how every major event handles memorabilia by 2030.

This was a recent guest article I wrote for https://www.seg3.com/ - If you enjoyed this deep dive, you'll love The Sports Stack. Join sports leaders from the PGA Tour, Two Circles, Genius Sports, and others who read our bi-monthly analysis of the next big plays in sports technology. https://the-sports-stack.beehiiv.com/subscribe