The Yankees and the secondary market ticketing site StubHub announced a new multi-year sponsorship agreement on Monday at Yankee Stadium.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but ESPN reported that it could be worth more than $100 million.
StubHub replaces the Yankees Ticket Exchange and will be ready to use by Thursday, July 7. The first ticket availability is for the game on Friday, July 15.
All Yankees tickets purchased through StubHub will be delivered to mobile devices. Ticket-holders can still post hard-stock tickets, but upon completion of a sale, those tickets will be converted to a mobile format.
“We are committed to providing our fans with a first-class ticket experience, and offering the safest, most secure and efficient platform for our fans to sell and purchase tickets,” Yankees president Randy Levine said in a press release. “This new product was the result of many productive discussions with StubHub, which will allow them to fully integrate into our ticket system. We are confident this collaboration will best protect our fans in the resale ticket marketplace.”
The deal concluded years of tension between StubHub and the Yankees.
The Yankees had been wary of StubHub for years, fearing that an active secondary market cuts into the number of tickets the team can sell directly to fans and suppresses prices.
In 2012, Major League Baseball signed a deal with StubHub, but the Yankees, Angels and Cubs initially opted out of it. The Mets always have been a part of it.
The situation came to a head before the current season when the Yankees announced they no longer would accept print-at-home tickets and only take mobile transfers or traditional, hard-stock tickets.
The team said the motivation was to prevent fraud, but the move widely was seen as a shot at StubHub, which this season has been forced to sell last-minute tickets from a location near Yankee Stadium, a source of inconvenience for fans.
“The New York Yankees are one of the preeminent brands in professional sports, and we are thrilled to join with them to create a best-in-class fan experience,” said Scott Cutler, President of StubHub, in a press release. “StubHub’s goal is to ensure that fans have access to games that they love to attend, and I’d like to thank both the Yankees and MLB Advanced Media for their willingness to come to the table and reach a positive solution for all parties.”
..... - Newsday