iBeacons Ready to Go at Major League Baseball Parks in Los Angeles and San Diego

Just two weeks after MacRumors reported that Major League Baseball was working to install iBeacons in 20 ballparks in time for the start of the 2014 season, home fields for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres are already outfitted with the Bluetooth transmitters, according to Re/code. MLB reportedly remains on track with the remainder of its rollout.

The installation of 65 iBeacons at Dodger Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego’s Petco Park, home of the Padres, will be followed by similar work at more than a dozen and a half other MLB stadiums, the league said. The plan is to have more than 20 ballparks in total equipped with the technology by Opening Day in late March.

petco_park

Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres (Flickr/SD Dirk)

As previously outlined, MLB's iBeacon initiative will allow iPhone users to receive location-specific alerts within ballparks via the existing At The Ballpark app. MLB has yet to detail exactly what kind of alerts will be enabled through the iBeacon system, but the system could be integrated with loyalty programs to offer discounts on concessions and fan gear, help visitors find their seats, or to activate supplemental content such as video clips when users are near commemorative plaques and statues.

Apple is looking to iBeacons as a way to enhance the visitor experience in stores, sporting arenas, and cultural venues, demonstrating the technology with a significant rollout at its own retail stores in the United States. While Apple has promoted the concept of iBeacons by building support for the technology into iOS 7, it is also a broader technology based on Bluetooth LE, with transmitters being developed by a number of different companies.

Following a two-game set between the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks in Sydney, Australia on March 22-23, the Major League Baseball regular season moves into high gear beginning on the evening of March 30 with a matchup in San Diego between the Dodgers and Padres, the two teams whose home stadiums already have their iBeacon systems up and running.

Popular Stories

New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18

20 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.2

Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
iphone 16 apple intelligence

Apple Drops Plans for iPhone Hardware Subscription Service

Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Rumored to Stick With 'Triangular' Camera Design

Wednesday December 18, 2024 2:36 am PST by
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
elevation lab airtag battery

Your AirTag's Battery Will Last for Up to 10 Years With Elevation Lab's New TimeCapsule Enclosure

Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag. Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
apple tv 4k yellow bg feature

New Apple TV Rumored to Launch Next Year With These Features

Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year. Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
blackmagic vision pro

Blackmagic Debuts $30K 3D Camera for Capturing Video for Vision Pro

Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro. The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
mac pro creativity

Apple Launched the Controversial 'Trashcan' Mac Pro 11 Years Ago Today

Thursday December 19, 2024 7:00 pm PST by
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup. The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
iPhone 17 Slim Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With 'Major' Design Changes and 19-Inch MacBook Detailed in New Report

Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie. The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...

Top Rated Comments

Daalseth Avatar
142 months ago
Am I the only one that thinks this sounds really useless.
Maybe not the only one, but I think it's a great idea. I've been to a couple of stadiums, the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Comiskey Park (I really don't like the new name) and Wrigley Field in Chicago. Yes it can be tricky to find your way around, especially with a few tens of thousands of other people also trying to find their way with herds of kids in tow, and even more so if it's not a park you go to regularly. It's not just your seat either. Where's the bathrooms, which one is out of order, where's the concession stand, the one where they sell pizza, I saw a souvenir bat, which souvenir stand sells those. There's a lot of things these could be used for. That's not to mention stats on players and other info about the game. I think they are a great idea and over time they will find all sorts of uses for them.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eternlgladiator Avatar
142 months ago
Am I the only one that thinks this sounds really useless.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
IJ Reilly Avatar
142 months ago
Maybe not the only one, but I think it's a great idea. I've been to a couple of stadiums, the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Comiskey Park (I really don't like the new name) and Wrigley Field in Chicago. Yes it can be tricky to find your way around, especially with a few tens of thousands of other people also trying to find their way with herds of kids in tow, and even more so if it's not a park you go to regularly. It's not just your seat either. Where's the bathrooms, which one is out of order, where's the concession stand, the one where they sell pizza, I saw a souvenir bat, which souvenir stand sells those. There's a lot of things these could be used for. That's not to mention stats on players and other info about the game. I think they are a great idea and over time they will find all sorts of uses for them.

I'm trying to imagine tens of thousands of fans walking along the concourses concentrating on their phones. I mean, it's tough enough to get around a crowded ballpark when people are actually paying attention to their surroundings. So if that's the only or best use of iBeacon tech in ballparks, I say forgedabodit. Now, if they can use it to get us through the concession lines faster, that would be something.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alent1234 Avatar
142 months ago
You know that's not the only purpose.


traded my iphone 5 for galaxy note 3 because i like the bigger screen to read

but these ibeacons aren't a reason to make me go back to iphone. i always turn my bluetooth off, or as much as possible. and won't turn it on just to have my phone polled every time to feed me coupons or show me directions i can figure out myself.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alent1234 Avatar
142 months ago
still don't see any value in it
how hard is it to find your seats with all the directions and maps?
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tdiaz Avatar
142 months ago
Great, something else to give the Padres an excuse to jack the price..

Worthless. ;-)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)