By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 24th, 2024
This is the first time the Oakland Athletics or any other Major League Baseball team has tested Bitcoin.
The American professional baseball team Oakland Athletics revealed to CNBC that it would be selling 10 suites for the 2021 MLB season in Bitcoin. The suits are usually $64,000 for the year. At the time of writing this, Bitcoin is exchanging for a little under $59,000. Those who buy the suites at current levels will save around $5,000. The team expects the sale of these suites to begin on Friday. According to the team, commonly referred to as the A’s, this is part of a promotion that runs until April 01. The president, president David Kaval, labelled the promotion as a “Bitcoin discount.” He went on to state:
“We thought this was a good way to test the market to see if there really was the interest level in transacting in the cryptocurrency as opposed to just using it to store value, and we felt a suite to the A’s game for a whole season was a good place to start.”
Oakland Athletics Embrace Innovation
This is the first time the Oakland Athletics or any other Major League Baseball team has tested Bitcoin. Speaking to the team’s motivation to test Bitcoin, the president explained there was a lot of interest in the digital asset in the Bay area and the A’s wanted to allow its fans to use Bitcoin and enjoy a discount while at it. It is further in its interest to remain innovative. This is a great way to test if Bitcoin was a real way to transact in the market place, he added.
“If you see it in baseball, you can see it anywhere.”
This is a major milestone for the A’s whose success could trigger a trend in the league. For now, the Oakland Athletics stadium is allowed to hold 20% capacity. its stadium has a capacity of 45,000 hence will only be allowed 9,000 fans. These figures are however subject to change. For the president, this is a big win having expected to start the season without fans.
A Growing Trend
While the MLB is only getting started, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has been engaged with crypto for years. Kings and Mark Cuban’s Mavericks have been accepting crypto for merchandise. Sacramento’s Kings began accepting Bitcoin in 2014. The Dallas Mavericks only recently began accepting DOGE for tickets and merchandise. At the time, Cuban noted:
“Sometimes in business, you have to do things that are fun, engaging and hopefully generate a lot of PR.”
The same trend in the US has also been seen in Europe. Since 2019, major European football teams like Benfica have been collaborating with startups to sell tickets and merchandise for crypto.