MLB Advanced Media today is releasing a significant update to its At The Ballpark mobile application, allowing season-ticket purchasers to upload and retrieve their entire ticket packages within the app.
The new MyTickets Mobile feature within At The Ballpark represents an expansion of most other prior mobile ticketing initiatives, which have been focused on single-game purchases. The functionality will be available for the rest of this season for 12 clubs that have their primary ticketing serviced by the MLBAM-owned Tickets.com: Baltimore, Boston, the Chicago Cubs, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, the New York Mets, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco.
Clubs using rival Ticketmaster for their primary ticketing might be integrated into MyTickets Mobile beginning next year.
The introduction of MyTickets Mobile is another example of MLBAM’s typical practice of releasing new products in the latter stages of a baseball season as a test run toward a fuller implementation the following year.
“This is another step in our effort to make the smartphone the go-to device for baseball fans,” said Bob Bowman, MLBAM president and chief executive. “We think the take-up rate on this feature will be very high. Mobile continues to be much more commerce-oriented, and this is another reflection of that.”
MyTickets Mobile will be available for devices on both the iOS and Android mobile platforms. Fans using iOS devices will be able to integrate their season-ticket purchases with Apple’s Passbook feature, which automatically uploads ticket barcodes to device lock screens at the appropriate time and place.
“The goal all along has been to get as many tickets as possible into this kind of digital environment,” said Steve Fanelli, Oakland A’s executive director of ticket sales and operations. “Season tickets are obviously a big chunk of our inventory in this sport, so to move in this direction is a big deal for us.”
