The reactions were all captured by a multicamera system that photographs every fan at T-Mobile Park during big moments, like Polanco’s home run, or smaller moments, like the Hydro Challenge.
The camera system belongs to Momento, a Chicago-based company that also photographs fans at Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Kraken games, among other professional teams.
The Mariners’ partnership with Momento started last year, but its popularity has surged with the baseball team winning its first American League West title since 2001. More than 22,000 images have been downloaded from the Mariners’ first two ALDS games alone, according to founder and CEO Austin Fletcher, compared with an average of 1,000 downloads per game during the regular season.
“With the excitement of the Mariners’ postseason, I think it really just helps teams connect with their fans in a really authentic way,” Fletcher said.
To view images, users go to a website run by Momento, choose the team and specific game, then input their section, row and seat. After submitting a name, contact information and birth date — not for verification, but for analytics that go to the Mariners — a fan can see photos of themselves and the people around them in different formats: just the image, one that looks like a ticket with their seat number or a GIF of multiple photos showing movement.
The photos are labeled by moments from the game — Sunday’s game had crowd images from Polanco’s two home runs, Rodriguez’s double and the moment the Mariners won.
Momento installs 10 cameras in each sports venue that are synced to take photos when a worker presses a button. For T-Mobile Park, Momento enters all 47,000-plus seats to connect them with the correct images and within minutes, fans can view photos. The Mariners still want to capture fan reactions even in losses or games without big plays, said JT Newton, the Mariners corporate partnership team’s manager of operations and development.
“Even if there maybe wasn’t a home run that day, that doesn’t mean that you still don’t want to relive being with your family at the ballpark,” Newton said.
Along with the fan experience, what do the Mariners get out of it? More information about you. As Momento put it in a 2024 news release, the crowd analytics help teams “better understand their fan base,” enabling them to “engage with their audience in unprecedented ways by pioneering personalized marketing campaigns tailored to individual fans through their unforgettable experiences.”
Reliving moments may be jarring for some fans who didn’t realize they were being recorded, particularly those in higher-up sections that don’t get the same camera time as the ones behind home plate. A fan can look up their seats, but in theory, so can a detective; a concerned friend trying to monitor someone’s beer and hot dog intake; or a suspicious ex who found a discarded ticket stub...
A Major League Baseball ticket’s terms of use agreement includes a paragraph giving MLB organizations, as well as some sponsors and other partners, unrestricted rights to the ticket holder’s image in any live or recorded broadcast or other media taken in connection with the event.
In simpler terms: Once you swipe your ticket, the Mariners can use your image however they want.
“In today’s world, fans are pretty aware that at a public space you could show up on a TV broadcast or on the jumbotron,” Fletcher said. “I think it’s just something that’s expected.”
Momento does honor opt-out requests if fans don’t want to have their images shown, Fletcher added. Users can submit requests on Momento’s website, and an employee will remove the seat from appearing. (...)
The company now works with 10 professional teams and earns money through team agreements, sponsorships and, for some events, physical products like framed photos, according to Fletcher, who credits Seattle’s teams, and their fandoms, with their growth.
by Paige Cornwell, Seattle Times | Read more:
Image: Momento
[ed. Seriously invasive, and creepy.]
