No paper tickets at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay

Tropicana Field

I'll be on vacation in Florida when the baseball season opens March 26, so I will not be attending Opening Day festivities at Guaranteed Rate Field this year.

However, that does not mean I won't attend a baseball game on that first day of the season. The Tampa Bay Rays are hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 26, and I've never been to Tropicana Field before. So, I figure, what the hell? Why not go?

I looked into tickets last week, and much to my surprise, the Rays have not put single-game tickets on sale yet. Earlier today, I saw this article in the Tampa Bay Times that gave me some answers.

Turns out, all the Rays' ticketing this season will be done through the MLB Ballpark app on a mobile device. No more paper tickets.

Tampa isn't putting single-game seats on sale until 10 o'clock Friday morning, presumably because the club was working to implement this new policy. Tropicana Field is already a cash-free facility, so it's a different world than what we have here in Chicago.

I'm familiar with the Ballpark App -- as a White Sox season-ticket holder, I access my tickets using that app all the time. The Sox prefer to scan your phone when you enter Guaranteed Rate Field.

I have no idea what the demand is like for Opening Day tickets in Tampa Bay, but I'm going to try to buy some. If I'm successful, it will be interesting to see how these no-paper-tickets and cash-free policies work.

It's likely the wave of the future, and only a matter of time before we see this everywhere.