Karri Zaremba, Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of product, said Go-Ahead entry had been in the works for more than two years. The program - complete with Go-Ahead banners at the first base gate directing fans - was launched Aug. 21.
Evolv technology is used at select other stadiums, such as Fenway Park and SoFi Stadium, and puts a premium on safety. Baseball fans and players say they’ve always felt safe at the ballpark. “You don’t have to put your bags down,” he said. “You keep walking and I don’t have to have my tickets out. I think it’s a great idea. If they don’t have to go through your bags, if you don’t have to keep your tickets out, it makes it very easy.”
“That’s part of the reason it’s taken us a long time,” she said. “We wanted to be very thoughtful and considerate in our approach. We wanted to make sure that fans were comfortable. It’s a completely optional service. No one has to use this. But if they want a faster, more frictionless experience to enter the ballpark, then we wanted to offer them a way to do that.”
Zaremba said the program was designed to remain separate from any kind of security or monitoring system at the ballpark.