We've all been there before.
It's the eighth inning of a game between two teams that are battling for nothing more than a good pick in next year's draft. You're sitting in the upper deck, and you look below to see that no one took those prime seats a few rows up from third base.
Normally, you might just sneak down to the seats and hope the usher isn't looking. But now thanks to a new app, there is a much more legitimate way to swap seats.
A tech startup called Pogoseat has created an app which allows fans at sporting events to scan the arena for empty seats and purchase a better ticket. The fan only pays the difference between his or her current ticket and the upgraded seat.
"Pogoseat creates a win-win scenario for fans and the venue," Evan Owens, Pogoseat's co-founder, told ESPN.com. "Fans get a better view of the action, and the venue increases its earnings by filling once-empty seats."
After carrying out test runs at Stanford basketball games, the company has been working with the Golden State Warriors over the past month. The program integrates information from the Warriors ticket office, updating constantly during games.
While the app is still in its infancy, if used correctly it could be a significant boon for fans and teams.
"It's convenient, and it's mutually beneficial," Brandon Schneider, the Warriors Vice President of Ticket Sales, told Forbes. "How often do you go to your seat and find that it’s not as good as you thought?"
There are still various kinks with Pogoseat's system. Namely, some people might not want to upgrade their seat at the game if they weren't willing to buy a pricier seat in the first place.
"If the pricing differential is based on the difference in the face value of the seats, that’s awfully stiff," Marty Lariviere wrote in Business Insider. "If $99 each was too rich when the $34 tickets were bought, why should a $65 add on be tolerable?"
Still, most fans would agree that the concept itself is intriguing and could be useful. And perhaps just as important, Pogoseat has the thumbs up from the Warriors organization.
“I think in the future," Schneider told Forbes,"every sports team will be doing this."
