A sold-out event can still lose money at the door. Not to big dramatic fraud — to small, avoidable friction that slows the line, sours the mood and lets a few people slip through. Here are the five we see most.
1. One scanner for one thousand people
Doors are a throughput problem. Add a lane for every few hundred expected guests, and a dedicated one for VIP so your best customers never queue behind general admission.
2. Briefing the team during the rush
Your scanners should know the re-entry policy, the ID rules and what a valid pass looks like before the first guest arrives — not while a queue builds behind them.
- 3. No backup power — a dead phone is a closed lane.
- 4. Accepting screenshots “just this once” — it never stays once.
- 5. No plan for will-call and comps, so guests clog the paid line.
“People forgive a great show with a rough queue only so many times. Fix the door and they come back.”
— Tunde Adebayo
None of these cost much to fix. They just take a walkthrough the day before — the cheapest insurance a night has.
Tunde Adebayo
Field Operations · TicketIt
