When the Intuit Dome opens for business next year, the Los Angeles Clippers’ new home will feature checkout-free concession stands using technology from startup AiFi, according to a recent press release.
Scheduled to “top out” this week, the Steve Ballmer-built Intuit Dome is currently scheduled to be open for the 2024 NBA season. At that time we may find out exactly how many AiFi-powered stands or stores might be available for fans. Right now, the press release only says AiFi will deploy “several technology solutions” at the new stadium. A subsequent inquiry to the AIFi PR contact did not reveal any more granularity, perhaps to leave the options open as to what kinds of checkout-free stands will be available.
While AiFi made an early splash in the checkout-free market a couple years ago with its “popup” type stores outside venues like Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium and Detroit’s Ford Field, the company has only announced a small number of new stadium stores over the past year, leaving it far behind competitors Zippin and Amazon in the stadium space. Though AiFi seemed to have a good base with a $65 million funding round announced last year, the company went through an executive shuffle in the summer, with the investors replacing co-founder and CEO Steve Gu with Steve Carlin, who had been a venture partner at Translink Capital before becoming AiFi’s CEO.
Like its competitors, AiFi has its technology in other types of retail situations, including convenience stores. Currently, the company’s website claims it has “100 stores globally” including sports-specific deployments in Miami, Detroit, at the Indy 500 and the Leicester City Stadium in the U.K. The company also has its technology in a stand at the Phoenix Raceway, and also in two stands at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, but has not publicly acknowledged the latter deployment.
Though there is certainly room for more checkout-free stands in stadiums, AiFi’s competitors have been busy with nonstop announcements. From August 2022 until February 2023 the number of stadium-based checkout-free stands from the two market leaders — Zippin and Amazon — almost doubled, from 44 in late summer to 82 at our latest unofficial count. Zippin leads the way with 50 known sports stores, while Amazon has 32. AiFi, by our count, has six active stores, with a couple more announced but undefined, like the Intuit Dome stores.
