MLB Advanced Media, in a significant effort around mobile ticketing that is debuting this spring, is putting primary ticketing, seat transfers and upgrades, stored value for concessions and loyalty programs in a single digital platform.
Internally branded the customer engagement platform, the unified mobile offering with the ticketing features was part of a recent update to MLBAM’s Ballpark application. Six teams — Cleveland, Cincinnati, Miami, Minnesota, San Francisco and Seattle — are live on the platform, and several others are expected to follow suit in the coming weeks.
The effort is designed to operate for a fan in the same way regardless of a club’s choices of vendor for primary ticketing or point-of-sale operations at their ballparks.
“The key idea is that there are no one-offs with this platform,” said Josh Frost, MLBAM director of product development. “Every stakeholder has had a seat at the table in the creation of this platform, and we believe this is a big step forward in the advancement of mobile ticketing.”
Also part of the customer engagement platforms: a direct integration with MLBAM’s efforts to install and improve proximity beacons at every ballpark, extensive real-time data monitoring, and the immediate creation of personalized mobile ticket bar codes. Those bar codes, now featuring ballpark designs in most instances, can be customized for special events such as promotional giveaways.
“Like everywhere, there continues to be a big discussion around our industry in figuring out, when somebody buys an average of 2.8 tickets, who that other 1.8 people are,” said Jerry Drobny, Giants vice president of strategic revenue services. “Going broadly to digital ticketing and a platform like this is our best option to solve that.”
The next step will be to provide more team customization within the Ballpark app. “We’re really interested, for example, in in-game seat upgrades,” Drobny said. “Other clubs may have different needs. So we’re still working out all the local applications.”
MLBAM’s efforts with the Ballpark app bear some similarity to other mobile ticketing initiatives. The San Francisco 49ers’ mobile app for Levi’s Stadium, built by VenueNext, offers many of the same options such as loyalty programs and mobile-based food ordering. Veritix, newly acquired by AEG, also offers substantial mobile ticketing options, in part through its Flash Seats app.
Given baseball’s status as by far the most widely attended pro sport, the potential scale of what MLBAM is contemplating is arguably much larger.
“The prospect of being able to deliver something specific to you individually and have it where and when you want it is very exciting to us,” said Mark Plutzer, MLBAM vice president of ticketing.
