Vikings switching to only electronic tickets in 2018

The Vikings are doing away with paper tickets for the 2018 season.

The team will accept only electronic tickets starting this fall, no longer allowing the paper printouts of game tickets it has accepted in the past.

Vikings executive communications director Jeff Anderson said the team is making the switch for several reasons, chief among them the ability to improve communications with fans before and during games. Nearly 50 percent of Vikings tickets are transferred from their original owner to another fan before games, Anderson said, so electronic tickets will allow the team to know exactly who's coming to games — as well as provide more personalized information about things like ticket lines, wayfinding inside U.S. Bank Stadium and concessions.

The Vikings are also making the move with an eye toward security, since electronic tickets are harder to counterfeit than paper printouts. Fans will still be able to sell their tickets on secondary market sites like StubHub and SeatGeek; they will not be required to go through the team to resell their seats.