Tickets.com in the News: Digital tickets for Oakland A's fans

San Jose Web 2.0 Examiner
Bonnie Boglioli-Randall

The Oakland Athletics sealed a deal with Costa Mesa-based Tickets.com to offer its fans complete mobile ticketing from start to finish. The A's are the first Major League Baseball club to implement start-to-finish mobile ticketing with the ProVenue mobile platform technology. With no applications necessary or calls to make, the purchase is short and sweet. Even better is the digitally delivered bar-code that eliminates the once necessary 3 P's of m-commerce: print, post or pick-up.

The A's Executive Director of Ticket Sales, Steve Fanelli, cited the importance of getting a piece of the mobile pie. "Staying ahead of advances in the mobile web market is critical in pleasing our fans and growing our organization," Fanelli said in a press release.

To see just how easy this process is, visit the mobile friendly A's website from your smart phone. Click on the prominent schedule link, choose your intended game, pay for it from your cell phone and wait briefly for your 2-D digital ticket. A slew of phones are compatible with the new ticketing feature including the iPhone (and iPod Touch), several Blackberry's and a few LG's. The Athletic's note that more devices are expected to be enabled shortly.

Response to the ProVenue platform has been positive thus far, with clients such as the Daytona International Speedway already on board. Tickets.com is currently the only ticket provider in the U.S. to offer complete ticketing via mobile. With m-commerce (mobile) usage on the rise since the advent of smart phones, it is expected that more such options will be made available within the next year for other sporting clubs.