Sports Business Journal (10/23/26) Schaefer, Rob
The 2026 World Series has provided a showcase for Go-Ahead Entry, Major League Baseball's (MLB's) three-year-old facial authentication ticketing program. That's because for the first time since it launched widely in 2024, both World Series teams deploy the technology at their respective ballparks. The Go-Ahead Entry program requires fans to pre-register in the MLB Ballpark app by submitting a selfie, which is then converted into an anonymized numerical token and connected to the fan's game ticket or tickets. At Go-Ahead Entry ballpark entrances, fans are able to stroll past a camera-embedded kiosk that matches their face to the token, thus granting entry without having to stop and/or retrieve their phone. MLB calculates that over one million fans are currently enrolled in the Go-Ahead Entry program. This past season, according to league officials, the system facilitated more than two million ballpark entries (up 41% from 2025) and achieved 72 percent faster throughput than standard mobile ticket scanning.
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