I love the Phillies.

They’re my hometown team. I’ve been a fan of them since I was little, and have been going to their games since I was little too. However, there was a period of time in between 2021 and 2023 where I didnt really go to any games. However, during this time, MLB quietly introduced the Ballpark app, which I believe is the gold standard for what professional sports ticketing systems should be in today’s age.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of all the things that I like about it.

This post is not sponsored in any way. I just love the app this much.

One account. All of baseball.

Ok, I’ll admit that sounds like a tagline for mlb.com 🤪

But really, its the best. I have one MLB.com account, and any tickets for any game that I wish to attend across the whole league can be bought on that one account, and it’ll show up on the Ballpark app because I’m signed into it with my MLB account. It’s awesome!

For the NFL, for example, I would have to create a ticketmaster account, buy individual tickets for an Eagles game through the Eagles ticketmaster page, and then download them to my Apple Wallet (more on that later). And then if I wanted to go to any other teams game, I’d have to go through this whole process again! How inconveinient!

Ticket tracking

There’s a page in the app where you can track all of your tickets for all of the games you have been to with the app. It even shows a summary of the number of stadiums and teams you’ve seen play!

Favorite teams

I can check the schedule for the Phillies becuase I have them as a favorite team in the app. But, I can just as easily flip over to any other team in the MLB and see what they have going on

Stadium entry

It is by far the easiest way to get into the stadium. I just put my phone in the scanner and I’m in. That’s all there is to it!

Don’t even get me started on Go-Ahead Entry. Super dystopian, but also the fastest way I’ve ever gotten into a stadium.

And the same app works across every. single. stadium. I don’t need to download an app for every team, as the Ballpark app works for all of them!

Apple Wallet, only if you want it

This is such a small thing, but I think that Apple Wallet is becoming a tad overused these days. Espically if you have season tickets for something like an Eagles game. Yes, I know you can clear them from your wallet but it really is an inconveinience. For Ballpark, you can choose to put them in your Apple Wallet, or just use the interface built into the app, and then have them automatically put them in your collection

Stadium navigation

This is espcially useful if you’re in a new stadium you’ve never been to before. This feature gives you an interactive map of the stadium to find food, restrooms, etc.

Sharing tickets

Gone are the days where you have to use your friend’s phone to get into the stadium. Now, they can send you a ticket that gets credited to your MLB account, and that you can use by yourself to get into the stadium. It even gets added to your collection

What I don’t like

• The app looks sterile and bare, but this does not impede on the fuctionality. It could just use some design tweaks
• Sharing tickets is a bit of a janky process, both on the sending and recieveing end, and could use some polish
• A lot of the app requies you to be in an external browser, whcih defeats the whole purpose of the app. Like, I get it if theres some niche thing you can only access on the browser, but I feel like buying tickets should at least be an in-app experience. They could even tie it in with Apple Pay.
• This is a nitpicky request, but I would love it if they used the Live Activities API for when they recognize you are in a stadium, and give you like a countdown or something until the first picth. That would be so cool.

Conclusion

I love the MLB Ballpark app, and I wish other leauges would follow in the MLB’s footsteps, becuase they are really onto something good here

Check it out here