Sharing the cost, a collaboration between Bowling Green-based technology company Hitcents and Western Kentucky University providing a service benefiting WKU and avid WKU fans. The university's athletics department has expanded its reach with several kiosks that make getting tickets - and being a part of what's happening in the university's sports world - much easier.

“We're one of the first universities in the commonwealth that has such technology,” said Brian Fremund, director of Athletic Media Relations.

The new kiosks are multifunctional - you can buy tickets, check game scores and sign up for the newsletter.

“We developed a kiosk system for remote ticket-buying,” said Chris Mills, president of Hitcents. “What it does is allow people to impulse buy. They see the Western kiosk and want to buy their ticket. The kiosk is linked in with (the university's) ticketing system, so it's just as if you went to their ticket office.”

The new-aged technology took five months to develop.

“The software was written on a regular PC that was hooked to a touch-screen computer that was hooked (to) a thermal computer,” Mills said.

The kiosks were installed in October, giving shoppers at Greenwood Mall and passersby on Russellville Road and in Glasgow the opportunity to stay on the ball with Western's athletics.

And, according to the university athletics officials,
the kiosks are a success.

Photos by Miranda Pederson/Daily News WKU has four ticket kiosks at various southcentral Kentucky locations - two at Greenwood Mall, one at Crossroads IGA in Rockfield and one at Houchens in Glasgow.

“The ticket allotments for the Southern Illinois and the Eastern Kentucky games were sold out,” said Jim Cope, the university's ticket director. “We're hoping that as they become more viable, they'll continue to grow as an option for people.”

The machines have about 50 tickets per game a person can purchase, Cope said.

“It kind of works like an ATM, but it's a touch screen,” Cope said. “Just swipe the credit card, and it'll print your tickets and a receipt right there.”

Although football and women's and men's basketball tickets and information is readily accessible by the kiosks, Cope said he is not sure about the other sports.

“We may put baseball or volleyball out there in the future,” he said.

And the machines have other entities wondering how
to get their own.

“We have already got calls for some schools and the Nashville Predators and some other well-known people,” Mills said. “This has already generated quite a buzz for us. You already see kiosks everywhere, at the airport. This is another step forward.”

Mills said the kiosks even feature an e-fan loyalty program, where users can sign up to get e-mails and promotions for Western in exchange for free tickets to games.

“They'll get an e-mail where they get an ID code,” Mills said. “The person can take that ID code to the kiosk and get a free ticket. Then they'll be on the marketing list and they'll get different news items that tell what's going on.”

In this day and age, everything is about convenience, Mills said, and providing a self-service kiosk to help buy tickets should drive ticket sales for games that were not sold-out.

“Much like online ticket buying, this started out slowly, but now look at it,” Cope said. “We're just trying to find unconventional ways to service the community, and I think people like this because of the convenience it provides.”