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Baseball breakthrough: Use your iPhone to order a beer to your seat

Baseball breakthrough: Use your iPhone to order a beer to your seat
Ben Bowman

Ben Bowman

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It’s not officially summer until you’ve kicked back at a baseball game. And it’s not officially a baseball game until the beer guy comes along to sell you an admittedly overpriced (but refreshing) cold one. But have you ever needed the beer guy and he’s AWOL? Where does he go? Doesn’t he know it’s 97 degrees and you’re sweating and your team forgot how to hit and you need something to drown your sorrows?

A new pilot program will allow some lucky fans to use their iPhones to order a beer directly to their seat. Don’t get too excited just yet. The trial is limited to 10 games at the Phillies’ ballpark and only in specific sections. But the potential is exciting.

This video describes how it works:

Just pull out your iPhone (sorry, Android users) and scan a QR code on the seat back in front of you. That opens a chatbot and you can see a menu of your options. Then order and pay with Apple Pay. Eventually, the beer guy will find you and deliver the suds (or water).

The program runs July 20-25 and August 2-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. And you’ve got to be sitting in section 142, 143, 144, or 145.

The program makes use of something called Apple Business Chat, and if the pilot succeeds, we might see this technology rolling out across the MLB and beyond!

Ben Bowman

Ben Bowman

Ben Bowman is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who led Softonic.com's editorial team in 2018 and 2019. Before joining Softonic, he was the Head of Content for Curiosity.com and a news producer for NBC, Fox, and CBS. He is an award-winning filmmaker and director of sketch and improv comedy, and a contributing writer for the Pitch comedy app.

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