Major League Baseball franchise the Boston Red Sox has become the final team in the league to opt into the league’s partnership deal with ticket reseller StubHub.
Last year, the Red Sox branched off from the league-level StubHub partnership to develop its own secondary ticket market place, Red Sox Replay.
By opting back into the agreement, the Red Sox will gain full integration with the 30 clubs in the league for the first time.
The agreement does not currently involve any kind of advertising benefits for StubHub inside Fenway Park.
“We were both willing and eager to do what’s right for the fans, to give them choice, and that’s our focus right now,” said StubHub North America general manager Perkins Miller, according to Sport Business Daily.
StubHub’s original agreement with MLB began more than 10 years ago, however, several teams opted not to become fully integrated into the partnership.
The Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees opted out of MLB’s deal to renew StubHub’s role as the official secondary ticket market back in 2012, but the latter re-signed with the resale site in June 2016.
As with the Red Sox, the Angels baseball franchise has now fully integrated its ticketing with the StubHub platform, with all season-ticket holders and single-game buyers able to resell their tickets through the site securely.
The Toronto Blue Jays appointed StubHub as its ticket resale partner in March, becoming the 29th MLB team to join the deal.
Prior to the launch of the 2017 season, StubHub released data that showed international interest in MLB had soared in the past year.
The ticketing platform found that international buyers made up five per cent of ticket purchases for the opening round of MLB games. Baseball fans in 30 countries secured seats for games, compared to just 18 in 2016.
StubHub revealed that the Red Sox had been the team that generated most sales in the last three years, while Los Angeles Dodgers fans are described as “most tech-savvy” having used the mobile app the most.
Image: Keith Allison
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