Young fans play a game of catch outside Coors Field before heading into the stadium for the MLB All-Star Game.terry lefton
The number of fans using digital tickets for MLB games this season has more than tripled in just two years — a massive trend coming out of the pandemic.
In 2019, MLB’s Ballpark app made up 18% of all tickets scanned. This year, that figure is up around 56%, according to Chris Marinak, MLB’s chief operations and strategy officer.
Before the pandemic, the rate of digital ticketing’s growth generally was around 3%-4% per year, Marinak said. “We’ve probably accelerated three to five years’ worth of transition to digital ticketing in the last 18 months,” he said.
Another reason for the upsurge: MLB has made it easier to download and share tickets. “We added a lot of nuts and bolts capability to the Ballpark app,” Marinak said.
But the main reason for such explosive growth is the growing familiarity people had with using digital applications during the pandemic. “People got more comfortable and understanding about using digital,” Marinak said. “We spend a lot of time making sure that our digital ticketing experience works. This year, it’s been working. People prefer digital. It’s a lot easier.”
Marinak knows a segment of MLB fans still want paper tickets and said MLB is working on developing kiosks at ballparks that allow fans to print out tickets and keep them as souvenirs.
