Don't Forget Your Phone!
You’ve probably heard this question on the way to the ballpark in the past: “Did you remember the tickets?” Hopefully, more often than not, the answer was yes! Nowadays, with every MLB ballpark requiring mobile ticketing, the better question is whether you remembered your phone.
Margaret Donahue, the first female executive in MLB history, is the pioneer of baseball tickets. Donahue started in the Cubs’ front office as a stenographer in 1919. Just seven years later, she was promoted by the Wrigley Co.’s board of directors to corporate secretary. The news of her promotion was featured in The Sporting News, among other publications. Prior to the 1929 baseball season, she introduced season tickets to Cubs fans. It was a huge success with thousands sold prior to Opening Day. Donahue had grown tired of saving the best seats for fans who were no shows at the box office, and thought that season tickets would create a better impetus for fans to actually attend the games.
Her ticketing ideas included other new practices as well. Donahue introduced the purchase of single game tickets at places other than the ballpark box office. Cubs tickets became available at Western Union offices across Chicago. (The actual ticket stubs became important to save on those rainy days when the game had to be postponed; hence, the term “rain checks”.) She also looked around Wrigley Field and saw that families were needed in attendance. Donahue pushed the Cubs to introduce reduced prices for children under 12. The ballpark soon became a family atmosphere, as years prior the club had started Ladies’ Day, free admission for women, for Friday home games.
Wrigley Field was also the site of a novel concept in food delivery – the concession stand! You see, in the early days of Wrigley, then called Weeghman Park, the Cubs owner, Charlie Weeghman, came from a food service background. He owned several lunch-top counter restaurants around town. He learned of his guests at the ballpark complaining that they couldn’t always see the game since the vendors were selling from large food carts in the fans’ sight lines. While allowing some vendors to continue to circulate among the crowd, Weeghman positioned most of the food and drink behind the stands, popularizing the modern day concession stands.
So much has evolved in ticketing and food service. Tickets soon became available for purchase in advance at many types of outlets throughout an MLB city (supermarkets, department stores, etc.). With the advent of the Internet, you could purchase your game day tickets online through Ticketmaster. Then, Stubhub and Seat Geek provided options in the resale market. Food at the ballparks went from hot dogs, popcorn, beer, and soda (and of course “peanuts and Cracker Jack”) to a variety of menu items and spirits. T-Mobile Park in Seattle is currently the number one ranked ballpark for food, featuring Pacific seafood gumbo and Dungeness crab sandwiches. Crazy, but true!
How do you get tickets and food at ballgames in 2023? Bring your phone, and make sure you download the MLB Ballpark app. All 30 MLB ballparks now require that its patrons enter the ballpark with mobile tickets. The benefits are compelling. With the pandemic still on the minds of everyone, cashless systems reduce customer touch points. Mobile ticketing also helps to prevent lost or stolen tickets. And it’s easy to use. Once the app is on your phone and connected to your email address, all future ticket purchases go immediately to the app for ballgames and even ballpark tours! While at the game you can also use your phone to order food to your seats or for quick and easy pickup at the concession stands.
Is there a downside to mobile ticketing? For me, the number one concern is that I lose a little anticipation of going to a game and the memories from attending. I recall as a young boy posting my future Reds tickets inside my bedroom door and counting the days to the game. More than that, I loved keeping the physical tickets after the game and looking back at the excitement. I still have the green plaza reserved, row 13, seat 13 ticket stub from Game 5 of the 1972 NLCS (my favorite game ever). Gary Piattoni of the “Antiques Roadshow” reflected: “Say you’re 10 and you go to a game with your dad; you give the ticket to the attendant, the attendant tears it and – boom – that stub is your memory.”
Further, many point out that cashless systems raise privacy issues, such that any digital point-of-sale system adds to your personal user information. Bigger picture is that digital only access worsens economic equality. Consumers who do not have access to a smartphone or a credit card are disadvantaged. Interestingly, Philadelphia and San Francisco have now banned many forms of cashless-only retailing. And digital only access to ballparks may increase the price of tickets in the resale market. Ticketing Bots tend to buy large blocks of tickets when tickets first enter the market. It’s the modern-day version of scalping, and a digital practice that Congress and the FTC have attempted to regulate.
The introduction of the pitch clock in 2023 to MLB games is also an interesting factor. The average game time in the first two months of the season is the lowest since 1984. Shortened game times mean lesser windows for food sales. MLB teams are experiencing lower beer sales in particular. Fans don’t want to spend so much of the game waiting in concession lines. One way to combat this is of course to use your phone by ordering food and beverages to your seats or for easier pickup at the concession stand. Don’t forget your phone!
Willy Wonka’s golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory warned: “Be certain to have this ticket with you, otherwise you will not be admitted.” That certainly rings true today with your phone. And just like the movie, it provides a better passage to your happy place.
Until Monday, June 19,
your Baseball Bench Coach
P.S. Your Coach returns in two weeks.