Why we recommend buying tickets on SeatGeek

When we created the first guide to finding shaded seats we recommended SeatGeek as the preferred place to buy tickets. Why? Because this is where we personally buy tickets to Major League Baseball games. That said, we receive a commission, at no cost to you, when you use our links and purchase tickets through SeatGeek and you can learn about how that works in our disclosure.

Is SeatGeek Legit?

In 2023 SeatGeek became the official ticket marketplace of MLB. There’s no stronger endorsement than that. So why not buy direct from the team box office? There’s nothing wrong with buying direct from your favorite team, but SeatGeek offers two big potential advantages:

  1. Access to the highest quality seats only offered to season ticket holders
  2. Discounted tickets for low-demand games

SeatGeek isn’t just an MLB ticket vendor. They sell tickets to all major sports and concerts. They’ve been around since 2009. This isn’t a fly-by-night operation.

If you’re still on edge you can click or tap here to read SeatGeek’s buyer guarantee. Put simply, if you have issues with your ticket they will offer comparable or better tickets to the event or a full refund. We have personally purchased many tickets on SeatGeek and never had to fall back on the guarantee.

Does SeatGeek charge fees?

Yes. Of course they do! Every ticket platform on the internet charges fees – that’s how they stay in business. Sure, some ticket platforms advertise on social media that they don’t charge fees; but look into it. All they’re doing is rolling the fees into the advertised price, so what you pay in the end is exactly the same (or more!).

What’s great about SeatGeek is the “all-in” price transparency. SeatGeek gives you the ability to toggle on “include fees” and see the final price of tickets side-by-side. That’s awesome because if you find an awesome shaded seat for $40, when you get to the checkout it actually costs $40.

In our opinion, there is nothing more infuriating than ticket platforms that hide the fees until the very last step of the checkout or don’t give the ability to toggle on all-in prices. They hope that once you’ve committed to typing in your contact info and billing info that you’re not going to back out once you see the final price. We don’t like that practice and can’t recommend platforms that behave this way.