Print edition: 
Matt Smith lives in Andover but it's not unusual for him to drive to downtown Wichita to buy Thunder tickets at Intrust Bank Arena's box office.
The reason is money. Smith could buy the tickets online or over the phone, but doing so would add $16 to his four-ticket order. That adds up for a big fan like Smith, who attends several games during the season.
Thinking about going to the Kid Rock concert on Feb. 1? Ordering four tickets at $25 each would cost $100 plus another $32 in service and delivery fees for the four tickets, if done online or by phone.
Though officials at Intrust Bank Arena say they rarely get complaints about the added fees, they do get occasional questions. The money raised by the fees, they said, goes to help run the arena and pay for ticketing operations. Sometimes, a portion of fees also goes to an event promoter.
They're quick to add, however, that the fees here are almost always lower than fees posted at arenas in other Midwest cities like Kansas City, Omaha and Little Rock.
"It all goes toward the arena budget, and it's basically to help offset expenses ... as far as the operation of the ticketing agency and the building," said Jim Sachs, director of ticketing at the arena.
How does the fee system work?
The arena sells its tickets through Select-A-Seat, a local ticketing agency that the county used for about 20 years, Sachs said. SMG started managing the agency in January 2010.
Besides the arena, Select-A-Seat also sells tickets for the Kansas Coliseum, the Cotillion, Wichita Grand Opera, the Thunder, the Wingnuts and Orpheum Theatre, as well as other venues.
People can purchase tickets for arena events online, by phone or at 18 Wichita-area Dillons stores. In doing so, though, they will have to pay certain convenience or processing fees for delivery.
They won't have to pay those fees if they buy tickets in person at the arena.
"If they want to avoid the convenience fees, they just need to come to the box office," said A.J. Boleski, general manager of the arena.
Smith said the drive to the box office is worth the money he saves on the four tickets he buys for his family. By going to the box office, he also gets to choose his specific seats. Those who buy tickets online can only choose their section.
"You save money and get exactly what you want," Smith said.
Similarly, people buying tickets for Cotillion events can avoid convenience fees by going to the box office there.
Going to the box office also eliminates a delivery fee attached to tickets ordered by phone or online. Each online or phone order — no matter the number of tickets — has a $2 cost to receive tickets by mail or at the will call window, or a $4 fee to print the tickets at home or have them delivered to a mobile phone.
The higher delivery fee for at-home printers or mobile phones covers the licensing and technology of these delivery methods, Sachs said. Dillons locations do not have any delivery fees because employees print the tickets at the stores.
Whether they order tickets online, by phone or in person, all ticket buyers pay one extra cost — a facility fee for the arena, which is usually $2 per ticket. Sachs said the arena tries to include this fee in the base ticket price to simplify the process.
"People enjoy one price, rather than seeing the fees," he said.
However, some promoters don't want the arena's facility fee as part of their ticket prices, meaning it must be added on top of the base price.
Fees also vary according to event and ticket price. Sachs said sporting events or ones geared toward families have lower service fees industry-wide.
So how do the various buying methods compare? For the Kid Rock concert, two $25 tickets in the upper level would cost $50 at the box office. At a local Dillons store, the tickets would cost $64.90. Online or by phone, the same tickets would be $66.90, which includes a $7.45 service fee per ticket and a $2 mailing fee.
Though the cheapest option is buying tickets at the box office, the majority of people purchase tickets by phone or online, Sachs said.
"People enjoy being able to ... look around and hunt and shop and find it at the convenience of their own home or office to get their own tickets," Sachs said.
As Boleski put it, the extra cost allows people to sit at home on a Saturday morning in their slippers and pajamas, ordering tickets at their leisure.
"I think people, for the most part, realize those fees are convenience fees," he said.
Service and convenience fees are also charged at some other performance venues, through their ticketing agencies.
Hartman Arena's ticket service, Stage 1 Tickets, attaches about $5 to its phone and online orders. Or, the charge is $2.50 for tickets bought at CD Tradeposts, Sports Time Fan Shops or Checkers grocery store. There is no fee for tickets bought at Hartman's box office.
The city's ticketing agency, WichitaTix, sells tickets for events at Century II, as well as places like Old Cowtown Museum and CityArts. Its fees are included in ticket prices. Online, the only delivery fee is $1.50 for mailing tickets, though eventgoers can choose to pick up tickets at the will call window for free.
Venues around the Midwest, including the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., and the Verizon Center in North Little Rock, charge convenience and facility fees, too.
Before Intrust Bank Arena established its fees, it looked at what other arenas in the region were charging and set fees that were below those, Sachs said.
"We feel like we're still lower in fee structure than any of those, and that's where we want to stay," he said.
