In a candid conversation at SEAT Annual Nashville 2025, Mets SVP of Technology Oscar Fernandez traced the arc of a five-year technology transformation at Citi Field, from a one-person operation to a 24-member team spanning infrastructure, broadcast, data engineering, and fan-facing solutions. Fernandez detailed how the organization has pursued frictionless entry at every stage: streamlining e-commerce and parking before fans even arrive, deploying Evolve walk-through security to cut gate wait times by 20 to 30 minutes, and launching facial recognition ticketing through Wicked to make every guest feel like a VIP regardless of how many games they attend.

On the infrastructure side, a third-party DAS audit surprised the team by finding that Citi Field's system, the oldest active DAS in MLB, was built with enough resiliency and scalability that a full rip-and-replace was not needed. Near-term upgrades targeting CBRS mid-band capacity are in progress, with private LTE on the roadmap for operational use cases including IoT, sensor networks, and PCI-isolated connectivity. The three-year overhaul of the video system, anchored by a 14,000-square-foot double-sided scoreboard, a 4K broadcast control room, and 1,300 IPTV screens, was built to do double duty: delivering a premium show on game day while enabling rapid venue conversion for soccer, concerts, and year-round events.

Fernandez also addressed AI head-on, describing how the Mets moved quickly to ban external tools, then built a private GPT platform to give staff a safe and productive alternative. The organization is now piloting AI-assisted call center routing, ticket sales outreach, and partnership presentation generation. The next major focus is a loyalty program that has already exceeded enrollment projections, with early data showing loyalty members spending 50 percent more on food and beverage and 30 percent more on retail, positioning personalization as the foundation for everything that comes next.