MLB Cardinals to Introduce Stored-Value Ticket Technology

SportsBusiness Journal
Don Muret

The MLB Cardinals are introducing stored-value technology this season at Busch Stadium, a ballpark admission with credit to buy food, drink and merchandise loaded into the bar code and folded into the ticket price. Delaware North Sportservice, the Cardinals' concessionaire, is a partner in the project after installing a new Micros point-of-sale system to accept the technology. The Cardinals signed a separate deal with Givex, a stored value vendor whose clients include the MLB Giants. Cardinals officials declined to reveal the investment cost.

Branding stored value as Cards Cash, the team plans to offer four loaded ticket promotions for '10, including a $5 credit folded into the outfield loge box seats, a season ticket priced at $30 per game, said Cardinals VP/Ticket Sales & Services Joe Strohm. With those tickets priced the same as in '09, it is basically $5 in free value, he said. The new Holliday Pack, a seven-game mini-plan named for Cardinals LF Matt Holliday, includes a $7 credit for each game. The team has not determined the ticket price for that package, Strohm said. Individual and group buyers have the option to load $10 onto their tickets, but will receive an actual value of $12 in credit as the Cardinals push the technology. They are the first big league team locally to launch stored value.

Stored-value has been in place since the Phillies launched their program at Citizens Bank Park in '04, and more than one-third of MLB teams now provide the ticketing option. The Cardinals have always been a proponent of loaded tickets but did not previously have the infrastructure in place to accommodate the technology at Busch Stadium, Strohm said. "We definitely think this will take off here as it has in other markets," he said.