New ticketing platform combines member access, table management, offline check-in, and event analytics in one system

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Sean A. Stevenson Sr. and William Rogers Jr., both Kentucky State University alumni, have created a ticketing platform around a problem they knew firsthand: Selling admission can be simple, but managing the culture, traditions, and logistics surrounding HBCU and Divine Nine events often is not.

YardTixx brings ticket sales together with functions organizers frequently have been forced to manage across several services. The platform offers member-only ticketing through access codes, table-package management with individual seat information, mobile check-in that can function offline, and tools to monitor attendance and event performance.

A homecoming weekend may require passes spanning several gatherings. A scholarship gala may sell complete tables but still need the name assigned to every seat. A chapter event may offer restricted pricing, and a crowded venue can overwhelm cellular service just as hundreds of guests arrive.

For Stevenson and Rogers, those details became the starting point. They designed the technology around the event experience instead of requiring organizations to reshape familiar practices around a generic platform.

YardTixx was developed through SAS Technologies LLC and Blaqswan LLC. Stevenson founded Indiana-based SAS Technologies, which specializes in platform development and digital infrastructure. Rogers founded Blaqswan, a strategy and innovation firm focused on economic empowerment within Black communities.

Together, the founders brought experience in software architecture, startup operations, HBCU campus culture, and Divine Nine organizations to the venture.

JaroGO Media’s technology team helped translate the founders’ architectural framework into a working application. The relationship is reflected in YardTixx’s “Powered by JaroGO” designation.

A Sept. 11 profile in The Hype Magazine placed YardTixx within a broader conversation about the live-events economy: not only who creates an event, but who builds the infrastructure through which audiences gather, pay, and connect.

That question gives the platform significance beyond its individual features. YardTixx represents an effort to combine technical design with firsthand knowledge of the people and organizations the technology is intended to serve.

The founders’ alma mater is also visible in the platform’s public identity. Photographs from Kentucky State appear prominently on the YardTixx homepage alongside scenes of bands, step shows, galas, and other HBCU gatherings the system was built to support.

Both founders are members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc., Majestic Psi Psi Chapter.

Stevenson is a former Thorobreds wide receiver and a member of the Kentucky State Athletic Hall of Fame. He also helped establish The Majestic Foundation Inc., which provides scholarships, mentorship, and other support to Kentucky State students.

Their alma mater’s alumni network is now putting the technology to work. YardTixx announced a partnership Sept. 15 with the Kentucky State University National Alumni Association.

Under the agreement, YardTixx will serve as a preferred ticketing platform for the association and its local chapters. It will support events such as Homecoming activities, Founders’ Day observances, scholarship galas, chapter meetings, reunions, fundraisers, and networking programs.

Stevenson described the agreement as personal, saying that bringing the platform back through the alumni association “closes a circle for both of us.”

Rogers said YardTixx gives alumni chapters “a simpler, more affordable way to manage ticketed events” and retain more of the proceeds their programs generate.

Participating chapters will receive fixed-fee pricing, payouts within 48 hours, and access to the platform’s offline check-in capabilities. YardTixx also will provide onboarding support to help chapter treasurers and financial secretaries establish their first events.

The company and alumni association are establishing a revenue-sharing arrangement that will direct a portion of ticket revenue from association-affiliated events back to the national organization. A nationwide rollout to local chapters is scheduled to begin in October.

Kentucky State University National Alumni Association President Barry C. Johnson said the organization was “excited and honored” to work with the alumni-founded company and described the partnership as having potential relevance for alumni networks nationwide.

YardTixx is already carrying registration and ticketing for alumni programming surrounding Kentucky State’s 2026 Homecoming weekend.

The Homecoming deployment offers one early application of the technology. The larger story began when Stevenson and Rogers recognized an overlooked problem within communities they knew well — and decided to build the solution themselves.