Centralized identity and the era of the automated fan experience

By Ashim Banerjee, IDmission

Think about visiting a stadium. When you’re there to watch your favorite team, you are constantly asked to show things, like tickets, ID, credit cards, or access badges. Each one requires you to line up, because at halftime or between innings, thousands of others are trying to do the same. Meanwhile the team must pay someone to look at all the things you are showing.  It’s not the most efficient experience. 

Teams want to improve the fan experience, create loyalty, and generate enthusiasm for repeat attendees, their best customers. While they’re at it, teams must drive revenue from food, beverage and merchandise as part of the game engagement.   

The pieces of the solution – for example face recognition, product shelves that automatically detect a purchase, or self-serve checkout kiosks – are critical. But without a unifying factor, each becomes a separate complex technology integration. And if each system is separate, the fan experience becomes less convenient, not easier.  

The visionary solution is using a single convenient factor, such as your face or a QR code on your smartphone, to enable anything and everything in the stadium. The basic technical pieces exist today, and individual use cases across NFL, MLB, MLS and other leagues are now common. Still wanting is the unified system to authorize and enable everything. 

Central Identity: The crucial component

What is the common denominator to enable the vision? Centralized Identity is the crucial remaining component to create an all encompassing automated fan experience. 

A centralized identity for the sports venue is a record that holds the important information needed for the fan experience – tickets to enter, proof of age for alcohol, and an approved credit card for the concessions – all instantly recognized via a single convenient factor.  

Sports venues can follow the lead of international travel. After years of getting slower and more congested, at major airports a returning citizen can now arrive in the U.S., be facially recognized, and whisk through immigration without physically showing a passport.  

Identity is the glue needed to tie together the existing technical pieces – automated payments, intelligent store fixtures, self service kiosks, ticket wallets, and face based entry – into a cohesive and compelling season-long fan experience.  

 Centralized identity can automate emerging fan features such as:  

• Automated Venue access. Ticketless entry without having to download ticket images and save them in a mobile phone wallet, or search through saved images on the phone while in the entry line. 
• Self-checkout for food and merchandise. Checkout scanning and sensors to tabulate the basket of goods are well established technologies. Making it a fast checkout means establishing a pre-authorization for the card on file so the payment instantly goes through. 
• Self-checkout for alcohol. A sensitive step adds complexity when the purchase includes the most common stadium item – a beer.  If the validity of the identity document can be established and saved in advance, the tedious process of pulling out a wallet and driver’s license with two beers in hand, at each visit to the concession, can be eliminated.  Just as significantly, the concession’s cost and liability associated with manual checking of ages and detecting fake IDs can be eliminated.
• Instant ordering and payment at a bar.  Even when the delivery comes with a personal touch, such as a hand mixed drink or an expertly poured draft, the ID check, payment and tipping can all take place automatically while the drink is being poured. 
• Self-pour alcohol stands. Portable keg kiosks can add short term crowd handling capacity when needed, without the accompanying need for trained staff. It all depends on being able to check ID and take payment automatically and with no customer hassle. 
• In-seat alcohol and food delivery. The ultimate convenience for premium customers requires pre-established seating location, payment authorization, and age verification. Gone are the days of passing a ten dollar bill down the row and getting a hotdog and change passed back. A custom food and drink order, delivered right to your seat, all needs an established identity to become practical.  

These are the use cases that can be created around the “platform” of a reusable stadium identity. In upcoming posts, we’ll discuss the details of what it takes to make it all a reality.  That includes factors such as facial recognition options (but not requirements), self-sovereignty and control of your personal data, persistence over the entire season, digital wallets, and more.  

In addition to looking at the fan experience, we’ll address the labor and cost savings for the stadium operators associated with identity based automation. Meanwhile, keep your eyes on the game.

IDmission is a global leader in identity and biometric verification. Our AI-based technology is used today by sports venue partners to deliver automated purchasing, alcohol and ticketing solutions in NFL, MLB and other stadiums.