The Philadelphia Phillies are hoping that a new ticketing solution can streamline and simplify its ticketing process going forward.

On June 27, the Phillies organization announced that the team as a whole would use the Tickets.com ticketing platform ProVenue™ starting with the 2013 MLB season. According to the press release announcing the news, the team road-tested Provenue this year at its spring training venue, Bright House Field in Clearwater, FL, and it has also implemented it with its Class A affiliate, The Clearwater Threshers. Success with both trials has led the team to adopt the ProVenue system for all of its ticketing needs.

The new agreement means a simplified ticketing structure with one database for all the team’s properties, enhanced analytical capabilities, and ready integration with the team’s data reporting platform already in place.

The Phillies have had a dismal 2012 season thus far, currently sitting at the bottom of the NL East with a 37-47 record. Poor performance and lost playing time from injuries to players like Roy Halladay, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard are to blame, according to a recent article on BleacherReport.com.

But poor returns on the field are not hampering ticket sales, with fans continuing to pack the stands this season. In fact, after 81 games the ESPN attendance report has the team at the top of the list, averaging 44,774 (or 102.6 percent of capacity) per home game and 33,567 (or 77.8 percent) on the road. Considering this sales success, particularly in the light of a less than stellar season, the search for the most streamlined ticketing solution is understandable.

Founded in 1995, Tickets.com obtained exclusive rights to provide online MLB ticket sales in 2000. Then in 2005, the League’s internet media arm, Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), bought the company outright.

The current deal is just the latest between a Major League Baseball team and Tickets.com, with other teams like the Boston Red Sox, the San Francisco Giants, the New York Mets, and the Oakland Athletics already using the ProVenue platform.

John Weber, Vice President of Ticket Sales and Operations for the Phillies, recently spoke with TicketNews about the team’s reasons for signing on with ProVenue™: “We transitioned to Tickets.com for [spring training at] Clearwater and the Threshers,” said Weber, “and that was a great first step for us to see the system in action.”

That successful first step convinced the organization to get the entire franchise on board. “We’ve been very pleased with the Tickets.com system so far,” Weber noted, “and we just think it’s going to get better and better. MLBAM, with all their initiatives and all they’ve been able to accomplish, shows a track record. Just the whole synergy of [Tickets.com] being involved with baseball, I see as a real plus to the partnership between Tickets.com, MLBAM and the Philadelphia Phillies.”

“We think it’s going to be the best system out there in baseball.”

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TicketNews also spoke with Doug Lyons, Vice President for Marketing and Communications at Tickets.com, to learn what makes this system unique. While highlighting the platform’s flexibility and high-end data collection and reporting features, Lyons also explained why he thinks the platform is a best fit for sports teams. “In addition to being high-capacity and fully featured for all ticketing needs,” noted Lyons, “the focus of our development has been for ticketing clients requiring complex season ticketing and inventory and account management functions.”

‘This focus has made ProVenue™ uniquely suited to the professional sports world, as the volume of tickets and complexity of transactions have made the product the best-of-breed for sports organizations.”

Lyons also discussed the benefits presented by this new agreement to his company as it strives to provide state-of-the-art ticketing for the MLB.

“The Phillies will help us evolve our systems in ever more creative ways and will become a showcase for our products. The Phillies have been pioneers in the past in areas such as custom and mobile reporting, Stored Value on tickets, and post-season seat allocation management tools. We look forward to working with them on future new initiatives and are committed to helping them — and ProVenue™ — be the first to market with innovation.”