NFL Helps Standardize Facial Recognition Technology

In the blink of an eye, facial recognition technology is now commonplace. Thanks to the National Football League, facial recognition technology has become the preferred screening method to “streamline and secure” entry into stadiums for hundreds of thousands of die-hard supporters eager to tailgate as long as possible and enter the venue hassle-free. As the football season fast approaches, all 32 NFL stadiums will use the surveillance platform after the NFL signed a contract with a company that uses facial scans to confirm the identity of individuals entering event venues and other secure spaces, including credentialed media areas, press boxes, and locker rooms.  

The company glorifying this invasive surveillance, cleverly marketed to professional sports franchises to enhance the fan experience, is called Wicket. It is already being used by other major league sports, including Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Soccer (MLS), and the National Hockey League (NHL). The Cleveland Browns first partnered with Wicket in 2020 to improve its game-day experience with the Express Access facial ticketing program. Over three seasons, the Browns expanded the program to 20 dedicated Express Access ticketing lanes, with more than 50 percent of season ticket holders opting into the program.

Wicket went even further, tempting Browns fans with cold adult beverages. In 2022, the Wicket/Browns partnership expanded to offer fans facial Age Verification and Mobile Order Pickup at Cleveland Cold Ones locations in the ballpark. The Browns also deployed the technology for club-level access and credentialled access to restricted areas (such as field level, player and coaching areas, and the press box), promoting how facial authentication improves experiences across the stadium. Never mind that they can watch someone’s every move and know where they live.  

Following its test run, Wicket’s partnership with the Cleveland Browns was deemed a success. According to Wicket data comparing traditional ticketing lanes and Wicket facial surveillance lanes, the Cleveland Browns sped up fan entry by 400 percent in 2023 by using Wicket facial ticketing, with an average entry time of less than 2 seconds per ticket. Compared with their 2022 season, the Cleveland Browns could clear their gate 10 minutes faster on average while reducing the space needed for ticketing ingress operations by 75 percent, saving the team an average of $8,000 per Wicket ticketing lane experience. Pleased with his new 32-stadium NFL contract (which went live on August 8), Wicket CEO Jeff Boehm shared:

“After a pilot last season, all 32 teams (starting with the New England Patriots!) will be using Wicket to streamline and secure the credentialing program. This will ensure that properly credentialed media, officials, staff, and guests can easily and safely access restricted areas, including the playing field, press box, or locker rooms.”

For now, some stadiums are using Wicket to accurately identify and track credentialed individuals with access areas like the locker room, field, press areas, and other restricted parts of each game day. However, some teams, like the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, and New York Mets, are already using Wicket’s facial authentication software to speed up fan entry into stadiums. With the success of their Cleveland Cold Ones gimmick, the Browns and their caterer—World Economic Forum-endorsed Aramark—are even using facial recognition technology for concessions purchases, a concept they called “Express Beer.”  

More than doubling internal expectations, Express Beer (sponsored in 2023 by big pharma’s cousin, Bud Light) was so successful during the Browns 2023 season that the franchise and its partners are rapidly looking at ways to expand the facial surveillance platform to include merchandise sales and other concession stands. After all, making it easier for excited fans to get a cold beer helps normalize facial recognition technology. So, what does Express Beer look like? Stadium Tech Report offered a quick primer, explaining:

“Fans who are already enrolled in the Cleveland Browns’ “Express Access” facial recognition ticketing system Wicket must add additional information to their profile to use the Express Beer stands. That information includes back and front photos of a state-issued ID, a selfie photograph, and a valid credit card number.

Once enrolled, fans can simply go to any of the Express Beer stands, and after a quick validation check to prove they are enrolled, they enter the one-way line, select their beverages and snacks from grab-and-go layouts, and stare at a tablet screen at the end of the line, where their age and payment information are verified. A staffer there will enter the items the customer has selected into the system, and after checking to make sure alcoholic beverage containers are opened, will send the customer on their way, with billing taking place online.”

Getting age validation out of the way is a big plus in the purchasing alcohol process across the entertainment industry. And it involves more than just Wicket software. Other components for Express Beer used during the 2023 Browns season came from other rapidly developing Artificial Intelligence-based (AI) tracking systems, including age and ID verification services from IDmission, point of sale and menu software from TapIn2, and credit card and fan loyalty information systems from Lava.ai.

As much as Americans love organized sports distractions, implementing AI surveillance at stadiums is genius and wholly expected by those of us who see where this is ultimately heading and at breakneck speed. Facilitating the march towards total surveillance and digital ID and currency like a seasoned soldier, IDmission’s ultimate goal is getting everyone primed to make transactions verified by facial recognition. The company is already in 200 countries, with over 300 million identities processed. Its CEO, Ashim Banerjee, has collaborated with Bill Gates for over a decade to usher in Mobile Money, where mobile phones are equitable and reduce barriers to financial institutions “and provide better money management tools to the four billion people around the world currently lacking basic financial services.”

For now, as the landscape around identity verification is rapidly reshaped under the guise of necessity ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic, Wicket’s data security and privacy policy requires users to “opt-in,” keeping it “safe” from violating any privacy regulations. Remember, Meta is about to pay a record $1.4 billion to settle a lawsuit with Texas, which accused the biased social media platform of breaking privacy laws by performing facial recognition on people’s photos without their consent.

Still, despite having to opt in and altogether omitting the dangers presented by the 5G needed at each stadium to run the mass surveillance, Adam Schwartz, privacy litigation director at Electronic Frontier Foundation, shared that this type of surveillance at major sporting events will indeed have a chilling effect on the “right to privacy and right to participate in sporting life.” You think? Elaborating on his concerns—which should override the fan excitement of any sports game and must be recognized by every freedom-loving, sports-loving American patriot—Schwartz remarked to The Register:

“Face recognition is a dangerous technology that routinely results in false accusations, mass surveillance, and racially disparate impact. Sports stadiums should not be using this technology absent strict safeguards, including: no use of [facial recognition technology] FRT on patrons absent their opt-in consent, with a clear and convenient alternative method of entry and payment; prompt deletion of collected footage; and no sharing footage with law enforcement absent a warrant. Given the even higher dangers of FRT in the hands of government, publicly owned stadiums shouldn’t be using this technology at all.”

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