Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the new media and Internet company of
Major League Baseball, and Ticketmaster have entered into a new multi-year online ticketing agreement. The new agreement makes Ticketmaster a preferred provider for all online ticketing services and introduces new ticketing resources to baseball fans.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ticketmaster will provide online ticketing infrastructure and back-end technology systems to MLBAM. The demand for online baseball ticketing sales has risen sharply with more than four million tickets purchased online by baseball fans in 2002, double from 2001.
"This is a great day for Ticketmaster. We are committed to helping fans get to games and helping teams fill seats. This is an opportunity for us to establish and/or strengthen our relationships with a number of MLB teams, and we are prepared to pull out all the stops to ensure that fans have a great ticketing experience," said Terry Barnes, chairman of Ticketmaster.
"Our teams and our organization wanted a partner who would provide excellent service and great convenience to the fan," said Bob Bowman, CEO of MLBAM. "Many of Ticketmaster's new technologies actually surpass our expectations by allowing fans to purchase, print or forward their tickets all from the convenience of their personal computer."
MLBAM officials said Ticketmaster offers an integrated suite of products and the extensive distribution network fans and teams demand. Ticketmaster sells more than 86 million tickets annually through 3500 retail Ticket Center outlets, 20 phone centers and one of the world's largest e-commerce sites on the Internet, www.ticketmaster.com.
Through the agreement, Ticketmaster will offer MLB teams an integrated suite of technology products allowing patrons to purchase and print ticketFast(TM) tickets online at MLB.com and Ticketmaster.com. In addition, teams will also have the opportunity to take advantage of several other Ticketmaster technologies including AccountManager, AccessManager, TeamExchange(TM), GroupManager and Ticket Forwarding.
Using AccountManager, season ticket holders could manage, renew and pay for their season tickets online. And if ever unable to attend a game, Ticketmaster's Ticket Forwarding technology would allow them to forward their unused tickets to another person electronically via email or through an online site. Once forwarded, users can then download and print their ticket/s from their home or personal computer using Ticketmaster ticketFast technology.
One of the latest technologies developed by Ticketmaster and being offered to MLB teams is Ticketmaster TeamExchange, an advanced after-market ticket service that creates an online forum for MLB season ticket holders to sell their unused tickets to other fans, opening up some of the best and previously unavailable seats to the public.
Ticketmaster's AccessManager, a new state-of-the-art automated access control ticketing system, would provide MLB teams with the ability to validate event tickets in real-time and provide teams with immediate inventory and attendance management abilities. The technology also includes the ability to expedite replacement of lost tickets, monitor entry traffic in real-time, eliminate wrong day event tickets and authenticate event admissions, parking passes, and online ticketFast e-tickets.
"Working with our progressive partners at MLBAM, we hope to increase the number of baseball ticket buyers and maximize the value of their ticketing investment while simultaneously helping them free up more time to enjoy their real passion — baseball!" said Barnes.
Ticketmaster is expected to begin online ticket sales for MLBAM with the start of the 2004 season.
