Sports

Race and sports event accreditation in Argentina: kit pickup, start waves and spectators

By SOMOS DER · October 30, 2026 · 7 min read

A race or sports event has two different accreditations: the athlete's, which almost always happens at kit pickup days or hours before, and that of everyone who enters a restricted area (spectators, staff, press, guests). To avoid queues, spread kit pickup over time slots with a cap, have each group register through its own link and decide at each check-in point whether people pass once or many times. Done that way, nobody gets accredited on race day: they only get checked. This guide is for organizers, brands and agencies from abroad bringing a race or sports event to Argentina.

First, separate who competes from who only enters

The most common mistake at sports events is putting everyone on the same list. The runner, the person with them, the hydration volunteer, the photographer and the sponsor have different needs, come in through different places and sometimes on different days. If they are all just «registered», the person at the gate has no way of knowing who to let into the start corral.

The Public Venue Credentialing Guide from CISA, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, puts it clearly: athletes in uniform may not need a credential inside their own zone (the field of play, the track, the pits), but there has to be a list with the name and role of each of them, and they do need one to enter other controlled zones. Translated to a race: the bib identifies the runner on the course, but the kit tent, the awards area or the sponsor zone need a different control.

Build a table with at least these types:

• Participants: the people who pick up a kit and start. If there are different distances (10K, 21K), make them different types.
• Spectators or companions: only if there is a closed area (a grandstand, the finish zone, a race village).
• Staff and volunteers: they arrive before anyone else and go in and out many times.
• Press: with access to the finish zone or the awards ceremony.
• Sponsors and guests: if they have a tent or space of their own.

In PASE each type registers through its own link (general, VIP, press, staff, whatever you set up), so nobody assigns themselves a category. A volunteer who comes in through the staff link is registered as staff without choosing it. The registration page and the QR email are available in Spanish and English, which helps when part of the field travels from abroad.

Kit pickup is where the queue happens

At a race, the big queue does not form at the start line. It forms at kit pickup. Everyone wants to collect the shirt and the bib on the last day, right after work. If you do not spread that demand, you will get the same queue as always.

The simplest way to spread it is to hand out time slots, each with a cap. In PASE each slot is set up as an attendee type with its own cap (for example «kit Thursday 10 to 13», «kit Thursday 17 to 20», «kit Friday 17 to 20»), so every registrant picks when to come. The crowd management guidance from the HSE, the UK Health and Safety Executive, recommends exactly this: phase arrivals when the number of people may exceed the capacity of the place, and have a way to monitor and estimate how many people are arriving. Keep in mind that the door checks the pass type and the sector, not the clock: if you want someone from the Friday slot not to be served on Thursday, that is a rule your staff applies, not something the scanner decides on its own.

Three things that keep the kit tent in order:

• Separate validation from handover. One operator scans and confirms; another person hands over the bag. If the person scanning also looks for the shirt size, the queue stops.
• Sort the kits by how people arrive, not by surname: if the screen shows the type (the distance), keep the kits grouped by distance and size.
• Decide what happens when someone picks up for someone else. It is the most frequent question. Decide it beforehand (with a signed authorization, with the holder's QR code on the phone, or not at all) and make sure every operator gives the same answer.

If the kit includes a printed badge (for staff, press or guests, not for the runner, who already has a bib), you can print it at the moment of validation. We cover that in printing name badges on site.

Race day: start waves and schedules

If the start is in waves (by pace, distance or category), each wave's corral is a sector. You have two options:

• Visual check by bib: the color or number of the bib says which wave the runner starts in. It is the fastest way to move a lot of people in a short time, and it is what mass races use.
• QR check: it is useful for small areas where you need to know who entered and when: the elite corral, the awards area, the sponsor tent, the press area at the finish.

You do not need to scan everywhere. You need to scan where the permission changes. Everywhere else, a clearly visible badge or bib is enough.

Once or many times: the pass type decides

At a sports event this decision weighs more than at others. Spectators in a grandstand enter once. Staff, the medical team, the photographer and the volunteers go in and out all day.

In PASE each attendee type can have re-entry or not. With re-entry, the QR code is not consumed: every time the person passes, the permission is checked and every pass is recorded with date and time. Without re-entry, they enter once and the QR code is used up; a second attempt shows as a duplicate. Check-in is also atomic: if two scanners read the same code at the same time, only one entry goes through.

For events over several days (a weekend tournament, a stage race), see also multi-day festival accreditation. One point to plan for: PASE checks pass type and sector, not the day. If a Saturday pass must not work on Sunday, set up one sector per day and run each day's gate as that sector's check-in point.

Internet at the start: check it beforehand

Races happen in parks, along waterfronts and on roads, where mobile signal drops just when thousands of people are together. PASE runs in the browser and needs a connection at the check-in point: if the network fails, it shows that there is no connection and lets you retry. It has no offline mode, so the day before, go to the exact spot, at start time if you can, and test it. If the signal is not enough, bring a router with a SIM card from another carrier or handle that point with a visual check. There are more options in what to do if the internet goes down at your event door.

Afterwards: the report that helps the next edition

What you learn most from a race is how many people picked up their kit in each slot and how many registrants never showed up. The PASE report shows entries by type, sector, gate and hour, with peak times, real attendance and entry times. With that, for the next edition you can adjust the cap per slot and how many operators to put in the tent. The report comes out in Spanish, so plan to have it translated if your client needs it in English. For more on what to look at, read real event attendance vs registrations.

At a race, the queue is fixed at kit pickup, not at the start line.

Frequently asked questions