NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) — Major League Baseball announced that it will begin using biometric ticketing systems – fingerprints, and, eventually, facial recognition software – at baseball stadiums around the country.
According to Fox Busines, the league is partnering with biometric technology vendor CLEAR to launch a pilot program at select stadium around the US later this season.
Assuming the program doesn’t run into any snags, the program is expected to be in full swing at CLEAR-equipped stadiums in time for the 2019 season, the companies said.
“We’ll be able to immediately link [fans’] CLEAR accounts to their MLB.com account. Your biometrics – your face and fingerprint – become your ticket,” CLEAR co-founder and CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker told FOX Business.
The system will later be expanded to point of sale systems, allowing patrons to pay for food and merch, and to validate their age in order to purchase adult beverages.
Clear also announced plans to build ‘fast access lanes’ at MLB stadiums, including the All-Star Game next week at Nationals Park and postseason games at participating stadiums.
The service is similar to Clear’s ‘Pre-Check’ fast-access lanes in airports, which the company charges a $179 annual fee to use. However, the company said the fast access lanes at stadiums would be free if patrons signed up with Clear.
“The adoption of mobile ticketing has brought us to this point,” Noah Garden, MLB’s executive vice president of business, told FOX Business. “Getting into the stadium as seamlessly and expeditiously as possible is important to the fan experience. The last thing you want is a pile-up getting into the game. We want to achieve security measures at the same time as taking the fan experience to the next level.”
