3 Ways the MLB are Blasting Ahead with Ticketing Technology

MLB attendance is rebounding, with more than 70 million fans expected to attend games for the first time in six years, helped along by on-field changes like pitch clocks and a more balanced schedule — but ticketing technology is doing plenty of the work too, with 92% of tickets now sold digitally, up from 86% the previous season.

Three innovations leading the way

The Miami Marlins have partnered with ticketing platform TicketRev to let fans name their own price for tickets in a buyer-driven marketplace. The Philadelphia Phillies have rolled out facial-authentication entry, letting registered fans walk straight into Citizens Bank Park with just a selfie, with the underlying biometric data converted to a code and deleted after use. And the league's Ballpark App has evolved from basic ticket delivery into a genuine one-stop-shop — personalised notifications, discounts, mobile food ordering — capturing rich first-party data on fan behaviour along the way.

Together, these moves show a league using ticketing technology not just to sell more tickets, but to better understand the fans buying them.