In a refreshing example of using the psychology of the fan experience to drive innovation, Karri Zaremba, MLB’s senior vice president of product — ballpark experience and ticketing, gave an insightful presentation at Tech Week about how MLB developed its well-received Go-Ahead Entry facial recognition system.
Research showed that the act of walking into the ballpark was one of a fan’s most emotional and intense feelings on game day; full of anticipation and excitement. But over the years, entry has become a complicated, stressful and even annoying effort — searching for mobile tickets, scrolling, waiting on technology and assistance and holding up lines. MLB wanted that to change, and so league officials asked themselves what entry should look like.
Zaremba artfully, yet simply, boiled down the league’s efforts to change a negative, “heads down” transactional entry to one more positive. With Go-Ahead Entry, it’s resulted in an “eyes up” experience in which obstacles have been removed, and there is a positive face-to-face interaction with gate attendees who greet fans by their names. It also serves the goal of admitting large groups without breaking stride, as many fans come as a family or group. The system has worked — it’s a quick, easy opt-in to self-register, it’s increased the speed of ingress and, more importantly, has created a positive connection with fans during a critical moment of their ballpark experience. It showed innovative change stemming from research and understanding the emotion of attending MLB games.
HOCKEY’S EVOLUTION: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s voice was still hoarse, recovering from being run down after traveling between bitter cold Montreal and Boston during the 4 Nations Face-Off. But the 72-year-old still looked lean and healthy and was in good spirits, coming off the very successful international competition and nearly 95,000 fans on March 1 at the Stadium Series game in Columbus. Prior to going on stage to lead off Tech Week, he appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and noted how league revenue this season would exceed $7 billion in mixed currency.
As the longest-tenured sports commissioner today, Bettman is adept at offering both history lessons and 30,000-foot views, and he believes the game is as good as it’s ever been. I’m not a hockey expert and it’s always difficult to say a sport is “better than ever.” But today’s NHL is clearly faster, the players are better athletes and there is more skill. It’s also a far better entertainment package and the game just looks better. So, he has reason to be bullish.
Bettman is concerned that tariffs will be a negative drag, but believes it’s only a brief moment in time. He wants more brands activating around the game: “It’s a collaborative process where we’re pushing and pulling and tugging at each other to think about ways that our game can be part of what they’re doing, and what they’re doing can be part of our game,” he said.
Finally, Bettman stated time again the league has to be unafraid of failure, and cited recent examples ranging from bringing more technology to the game to hosting the NHL Draft at the Sphere. “Very expensive and very complicated to put on,” Bettman said. “We were the first ones to do a live show out of the Sphere. We weren’t afraid of failure.”
Bettman’s fearless attitude has been consistent, and as the NHL and NHLPA prepare to discuss a new CBA after the 2025-26 season, the league is in a healthy place. Relations between the sides are better than ever, and there aren’t the emotional, polarizing issues dividing them as in years past. There’s a lot to do and improve upon. But the hard work is done, this is the fun stuff, and Bettman won’t be afraid to take chances or be afraid to fail.
OF NOTE: A reminder for next year: If you’ve never been to our Sports Business Awards: Tech, please make a point of it. This year, more than 350 attended at the Hard Rock Hotel in Times Square, and I have never seen any of our award shows see such engagement. Attendees are locked in throughout the ceremony, learning about the tech companies, applications, use cases and the leading executives. I always walk out of that event smarter, and hope you will join me next year. … I’ll end with a thank you — for all the support and congratulations on SBJ’s acquisition of the National Sports Forum, which is one of the top conferences in sports business. The best part was your admiration of NSF founder Ron Seaver, who I have known for nearly three decades. He’s smart, kind, funny and a mentor with the right values. He will make SBJ better and we’re so excited to add this event to our portfolio. Put it on your calendar now: The 30th edition of the event will be held in St. Louis next Feb. 22-24. Ron and I look forward to seeing you there.
Abraham Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
