The Nationals and Giants will join the Phillies and Astros as MLB teams to deploy the league’s Go-Ahead Entry facial authentication ticketing solution.
The Nationals will have four frictionless entry lanes at Nationals Park -- two at the center field gates and one each at the first base and right field gates -- that combine the Go-Ahead Entry system with CEIA OpenGate automated security scanners (which the team began using in 2022) this season. One of the center field lanes will officially debut for the Nationals Futures Game on Tuesday. The Giants’ lanes will be at Oracle Park’s Lefty O’Doul Gate and 2nd & King Gate.
Go-Ahead Entry, a finalist for Venue Operations Technology of the Year at this month’s Sports Business Awards: Tech, is a program developed by MLB where fans can opt-in by submitting a selfie through the MLB Ballpark app. The selfie is converted into a numerical token, which is used to authenticate fans’ ticket(s) via facial scan without storing a photo of their face. The goal is an expedited ingress process in which fans enter the stadium without breaking stride, pulling out their phone or wallet, or needing to scan a barcode. Fans that opt-in can authenticate multiple tickets with one token by attaching those tickets to their account in the MLB Ballpark app.
The Phillies piloted Go-Ahead Entry, paired with Evolv Express security scanners, at Citizens Bank Park last season, beginning with a dedicated entry lane at the stadium’s first base gate in August. Soon after, they expanded use of the system to the park’s third base gate, and this season will add its other main gate in left field as well. MLB found that Go-Ahead Entry users at Citizens Bank Park last season went through their gate 68% faster than a traditional entry lane.
“With the number of registrations and with the ease-of-use and [anecdotal] fan response, it was very clear that it was going to be a very successful program,” Phillies CTO Sean Walker told SBJ, adding that the Phillies’ pilot logged thousands of registrants. “We feel like this year, with all three gates there, we’ll be able to understand registrations to conversions and understand the speeds of those lines and we’ll have better data.”
The Nationals, Giants, Phillies and Astros are the only MLB teams that will deploy the system to start the 2024 season, but more clubs are expected to come online throughout.
