MLB wants you to buy snacks with your face at the ballpark
As Major League Baseball’s 2025 season kicks off, the league is expanding its use of facial recognition tech — not just to get fans through the gates faster but to change how they buy food and drinks at the ballpark.
MLB’s Go-Ahead Entry system, already in use at nine stadiums, lets fans enter without pulling out their phone or scanning a ticket. After uploading a selfie in the MLB Ballpark app, a fan’s face is converted into a unique numerical token. At the gate, a live scan checks for a match — and if the fan has a valid ticket, they’re allowed through. The image itself is discarded after enrollment.
An MLB spokesperson told Mashable through email that the system allows fans to enter 2.4x faster than traditional lanes. This year, MLB is expanding that tech to concessions.
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Starting on Opening Day, the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Guardians will pilot different "purchase experiences" to see how the Go-Ahead Entry tech can be applied to concessions. Part of that is a partnership between the MLB and Mastercard for a digital wallet inside the Ballpark app.
The idea is similar to Amazon’s Go stores, which use computer vision, sensors, and thousands of overseas laborers to track purchases. MLB’s version is still in testing, and fans can choose not to participate or delete their data at any time.
The expansion of the Go-Ahead Entry system is part of MLB's broader push to modernize the fan experience.
The league is also rolling out My Daily Story, a personalized highlight feed "powered by AI from Google Cloud." It will launch on March 28 and automatically generate game recaps tailored to individual fans. The Ballpark app has also been overhauled with smarter maps, dynamic content cards, and real-time updates tied to a fan’s location and ticket status.
Whether these upgrades feel helpful or intrusive may depend on how comfortable fans are with AI and facial recognition becoming a bigger part of their day at the ballpark.
Topics Facial Recognition Sports
Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and Mother Jones.
In his free time, he cooks, loves to sleep, and greatly enjoys Detroit sports. If you have any tips or want to talk shop about the Lions, you can reach out to him on Bluesky @offbrandchance.bsky.social, by email at [email protected], or on Signal at 224-417-6628.
