Cash no longer accepted for tickets to Cedar Rapids schools’ athletic events

CEDAR RAPIDS — Cash no longer will be accepted to purchase tickets for athletic events in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

Effective immediately, the Cedar Rapids district is moving to a fully digital system to purchase tickets to athletic events to reduce lines at entrances — and to provide a safer environment for volunteers who otherwise would have large amounts of cash, said Adam McDonnell the district’s activities director.

The district has been using digital passes for the last four years at some schools.

Tickets to athletic events hosted in the Cedar Rapids district can be purchased online before an event or at the gate using touchless pay, such as Apple or Google Pay, or a credit or debit card.

Tickets can be purchased online at gobound.com/ia. Using the search bar, type in the city and school of the athletic event. Once you reach the school’s athletics homepage, click on “Tickets” and find the game or pass to which you wish to buy tickets. Or, download the Bound mobile app to purchase tickets, and create a family so tickets can be shared with others.

Tickets typically go on sale 60 days ahead of game day. Once purchased, tickets can be stored on a smartphone or printed for convenience, McDonnell said.

Bound — the ticketing platform — is required by the Iowa High School Athletic Association and Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union for use by member schools to record statistics and data entry.

The district currently uses Bound as an activities management platform for free through a “Lets Go Bound” partnership. This includes scheduling, activities registrations, facilities management, team rosters, ticketing and state reporting and compliance.

The district says that the change to a cashless ticketing system will be communicated with the public in a few different ways:

This information also is being disseminated in other languages spoken by students and families in the district.

McDonnell said school officials already have been working to communicate the change with spectators coming to events. Cashless entry has been piloted at each high school this fall and “received positively,” he said.

Gate workers are being trained to assist people with the cashless options to purchase tickets, McDonnell said. School building leaders are available and trained to support people in the process as well, he said.

Individuals without credit or debit cards can work with their school building leaders or administrators at the Educational Leadership and Support Center, 2500 Edgewood Rd. NW, Cedar Rapids, to purchase tickets ahead of time.

Bound offers cost-saving opportunities like season passes and reduced-price student passes, McDonnell said.

Across the three traditional high schools in the Cedar Rapids district — Kennedy, Jefferson and Washington — there are more than 2,400 student athletes and about 192 separate athletic teams in 9-12th grade.

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