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.
Starting on Opening Day, the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Guardians will pilot a new grab-and-go system. Fans walk in, grab their snacks, and walk out — charges are processed automatically via a digital wallet in the Ballpark app. MLB is partnering with Mastercard on the back end.
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 Google Cloud and Gemini AI. It automatically generates game recaps tailored to individual fans and will launch on March 28. 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.
