MLB “Authorized Ticket Marketplaces” System Starts With StubHub
BaseballIndustryMLBSports
March 28, 2023
Dave Clark 0
Shortly after announcing a deal that made SeatGeek the official ticket resale marketplace of Major League Baseball, the league announced the establishment of a new ecosystem that will allow other companies to become “Authorized Ticket Marketplaces.” StubHub, which had served as the resale marketplace of choice for more than a decade with MLB, was the first platform to be announced to the new program, though others are expected to follow soon as the season gets underway this week.
“We took a step back and looked at the industry as a whole and tried to balance access and fan engagement with the right financial model and I would say that we feel really good that we achieved that,” says MLB Chief Revenue Officer Noah Garden. “We weren’t trying to maximize revenue at the expense of fans. We were trying to optimize the whole ecosystem.”
While official league channels will point consumers looking for ticket resale options to SeatGeek, individual organizations can sign local deals with other marketplaces if they so choose. Platforms that pay their way on to the ATM system will also share customer data with the league and its franchises, while gaining the ability to sell tickets that have been authenticated through the official ticketing system.
Such consumer data sharing has become a hallmark of any ticket resale website hoping to partner with event operators, though it comes with risks for those selling tickets on the platforms, as teams have been known to vindictively cancel ticket accounts for those they believe to be selling their tickets on “too frequently” – particularly problematic for a league where season ticket holders buy passes to 81 home games.
MLB does not have a single ticketing platform across its league, though most organizations have their primary ticketing handled by Tickets.com, a system owned by MLB Advanced Media. Some clubs use Ticketmaster as their primary box office. Garden told Sports Business Journal that the league expects to announce “four or five more” platforms approval on the ATM system by the end of this week.
Major League Baseball’s Opening Day is scheduled for Thursday, March 30, where all 30 clubs will play for the first time since 1968. The full schedule for Opening Day 2023 and links to ticket marketplaces are included below:
Opening Day tickets at MEGASeats | 10% off use code TICKETNEWS
Opening Day tickets at ScoreBig
Opening Day tickets at SeatGeek
Opening Day tickets at StubHub
Opening Day tickets at Ticket Club | Free membership use code TICKETNEWS
Opening Day tickets at Vivid Seats
(all games Eastern time)
Last Updated on March 28, 2023 by Dave Clark
https://www.ticketnews.com/2023/03/mlb-authorized-ticket-marketplaces-system-starts-with-stubhub/