Red Sox introduce new Digital Ticket Initative for Upper Bleacher seats

BOSTON, MA - As part of an ongoing effort to provide fans and families with more opportunities to purchase the most affordable seats at Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox today introduced a new "Digital Ticket Initiative" that would help prevent the lowest priced seats at Fenway Park - the Upper Bleacher seats priced at $12 - from being sold on the secondary market at significantly higher prices.

For select high-demand games during the 2012 season, most seats in the Upper Bleacher area of the ballpark will only be offered as "digital tickets" rather than printed tickets, and require the credit card used by the primary purchaser to be swiped at the gate in order to gain entry into the Park on game day.  

"Over the past 10 years, we have intentionally held the price of the Upper Bleacher seating category at $12 per seat in order to provide family-friendly pricing options for Red Sox fans," said Red Sox SVP/Ticketing Ron Bumgarner. "The downside of keeping these low price points is that these tickets sometimes end up on the secondary ticketing market at significantly marked up prices. By requiring the primary purchaser of the tickets to attend the game through this Digital Ticketing Initiative, our hope is to gradually eliminate those purchasing these specific tickets solely for the purpose of resale, and instead get these tickets into the hands of fans and families all over New England."

The Digital Ticket Initiative for the Upper Bleacher seating area is the latest in a series of steps the organization has undertaken over the past few years to ensure Red Sox tickets are accessible to as many different fans as possible. Other efforts include:

•  The implementation of specific ticket limits per purchase to ensure that the maximum number of unique fans receive the ability to purchase tickets
• Special random drawings for the most popular games and seating areas
•  Providing a number of tickets on the day of a game for walk-up fans
• Designating a "Scalp Free Zone" at Gate C where ticket holders who can't attend that day/night's game can sell their seats at face value

Part of a Major League Baseball initiative that will be implemented league-wide in 2012, the Red Sox were among the first teams to offer digital ticketing as an option for a select group of season ticket holders during the 2011 season. The team will look to extend the option of "going digital" to more fans throughout the season.

While the general 2012 season ticket on-sale starts January 28 at 10:00 a.m., Upper Bleacher seats for the 30 games that will be included as part of this year's Digital Ticket Initiative will be part of a separate sale starting February 1. The 30 games include, April 13, April 20-22, June 8-10, June 22-24, July 6-8, July 16-19, July 20-22, August 3-5, August 24-26, September 11-13. Purchasers of the Upper Bleacher seats on these select dates will be required to pay with a credit card and asked to bring that same credit card to the ballpark on the day of the game to gain entry.

Additionally, starting February 1, registration will begin to enter the special random drawing for tickets to opening day, games against the Yankees as well as the Green Monster and Right Field Roof Deck seating areas. Fans can register for the opportunity to purchase tickets to these highly sought-after games and seats on redsox.com.