Major League Baseball team Oakland Athletics has sold their first crypto-purchased season ticket less than three weeks after first offering them.
The Oakland A’s, as they’re colloquially called, introduced an offer on March 15 enabling fans to purchase suite tickets with Bitcoin.
On Wednesday, March 31, the San Francisco East Bay ballclub announced that the buyer was New York-based publicly traded crypto asset platform Voyager Digital Ltd. The fintech firm purchased a six-person suite for all of the team’s 2021 home games for the price of one Bitcoin, or approximately $58,500 on the day.
It’s happening: #Bitcoin in baseball. @investvoyager (publicly-traded, licensed crypto-asset platform) has purchased full season suite at #Oakland Coliseum. 1st ticket deal in cryptocurrency in #MLB. @Athletics @Ehrls15
— Raj Mathai (@rajmathai) March 31, 2021
Six-person private suites for individual games are on sale for around $600, and the official price for the suite for the entire season is currently more than that of a single Bitcoin at $64,800 according to the official website.
The purchase has become a milestone for the A’s as they become the first team in Major League Baseball to sell tickets for cryptocurrency. Team President Dave Kaval congratulated the buyer, stating:
“Cryptocurrency is a viable and tangible currency model, and we know other forward-thinking companies and individuals will join Voyager in using this payment for ticket purchases.”
Congrats to @investvoyager for purchasing the first full season suite for one Bitcoin! We’ll see you at the ballpark tomorrow. #Bitcoin @Athletics @MLB ⚾️
— Dave Kaval (@DaveKaval) March 31, 2021
Voyager co-founder and CEO Steve Ehrlich stated that the firm has close ties with outfielder Stephen Piscotty and that the suite will be shared with its customer base in the Bay Area and beyond.
In an earlier interview on Friday, March 26, Kaval stated that the team would be hodling any BTC made through ticket sales, adding:
“We’re believers in [Bitcoin] and hopefully it continues to go up and maybe we can find some big free agents with some of the proceeds.”
Fans can still buy a full-season six-person suite for one BTC until Thursday, April 1 according to the team’s official channels.
