Seattle Seahawks, Mariners and Sounders fans can now use their fingerprints to verify their age and purchase beer and other concessions at home games.
Clear, a biometric verification company that uses fingerprints and iris scans to check people via fast lanes into airports, akin to TSA Pre, has enabled biometric concession purchases for the first time at a sports stadium in the U.S.
At the Mariners’ Safeco field, Clear has partnered with the venue’s concession provider Centerplate to bring this feature to two point of sale systems with special Clear lines in sections 136 and 185. At CenturyLink Field, home of the Seahawks and Sounders, two dedicated Clear stations will be located in the Delta Sky 360 Club.
This is the first time biometrics have replaced age ID verification and a credit card for alcohol purchases, following new regulations recently adopted by the State of Washington. Clear’s head of sports and events, Lauren Stangel, said the company is in active talks with other states to bring biometric concessions to some of Clear’s other venues. She said teams from other Clear-enabled venues have “expressed interest,” and hopes to announce new stadiums within the next few months.
Clear currently runs biometric gate check-ins at 13 professional sports facilities across MLB, MLS, the NFL, and the NBA, including Yankees Stadium, the Giants’ AT&T Park, the Tigers’ Comerica Park and the Heat’s AmericanAirlines Arena. Last month, it inked a multi-year deal with MLB and the league’s ticketing partner Tickets.com to become the official biometric ID and ticketing partner of the league.
The benefit of using biometrics at security gates at concessions stands is twofold: the service at sports arenas is free for fans and expedites their entry into the arena and their purchases of concessions. For teams, biometrics offer the ability to access key demographic data about the people attending games and making in-stadium purchases.
While starting with a small sample (just two POS systems at each arena), Clear will likely work with teams and providers to expand the system throughout each arena if it proves successful. Centerplate would also be interested in expanding this beyond Safeco to some of its other 300 sports and entertainment venues in the U.S. and Canada.
“Our vision is to create a more secure and frictionless experience for fans,” said Stangel. “Sports and music venues are starting to look more like airports from a security perspective, and oftentimes when you’re increasing security protocols it can sometimes affect the fan experience. We believe our platform can mitigate this by creating frictionless moments where fans can use biometrics to not only get into the ballpark and to share tickets biometrically, but to buy concessions with just the tap of a finger.”
SportTechie Takeaway
Biometric ticketing and concession buying has two primary benefits that we’ll continue to shake out over the next few years. First, there’s the data. Teams and leagues want to know the people attending their games and buying things at their arenas so they can better target them with promotions. Second, there’s the urge to improve the fan experience (partly by making it frictionless) so that teams can continue to attract fans to the stadium. Both of these factors will be important for stadiums to to compete as the at-home experience for fans continues to improve.