The National Football League (NFL) intends to adopt biometric ID verification for all stadiums starting in the 2024 season.
According to Biometric Update, the league tested identity and access management (IAM) systems for three and a half years.
IAM systems produced a pilot with six teams last season, appearing to satisfy franchise owners.
A centralized facial recognition IAM service based on the league’s Express Access authentication platform will likely be ready for all stadiums by the start of next season.
Sports fans will soon be unable to attend live games without face scans.
Biometric Facial Recognition Scanning to Roll Out Across 30 NFL Stadiums in 2024 https://t.co/su2hBOeg9s pic.twitter.com/zTSz87aWb7
— StridentConservative (@StridentConserv) February 29, 2024
Biometric Update reports:
Credentialing systems by computer-vision firm Wicket were part of the tests and are expected to be the core of post-pilot operations.
NFL executives have been talking about credentialing for several months. Every effort to create ID verification in stadiums has failed at the hands of counterfeiters or because the levels of passes were too numerous and complex for the environment.
According to trade journal Venues Now, gate keepers and security personnel have been told to physically feel an IAM device for genuineness.
Wicket facial authentication systems were in play during the Super Bowl this month. While no one is talking about how successful IAM operations were, the only incident being discussed is the man who got on the field during the game with a hashtag markered on his torso.
“Andrea Schultz, the NFL’s director of strategic security programs, discussed the new system at the Stadium Managers Association seminar on Feb. 13,” Venues Now reports.
The league intends to centralize its entry process with facial recognition software to identify credentials that allow individuals to access certain areas.
The Cleveland Browns and Atlanta Falcons utilized Wicket’s facial recognition technology for fan entry in the pilot program.
The Super Bowl also provided a testing ground for the technology.
“We started this project 3.5 years ago and it’s finally coming to fruition,” Schultz said, according to Venues Now.
“The pilot was the first step in learning, and we still have a lot of learning to do,” she added.
Per Venues Now:
Schultz showed a display of multiple NFL badges on a big screen that were mostly a jumble of symbols and colors that only “someone with a degree in rocket science could decipher,” she said.
“I showed up in Las Vegas, got a credential and there were 18 letters, colors and shapes,” Schultz said. “What does it all mean and why is my lanyard green vs. yellow? Two of my colleagues are color blind and they couldn’t see half of what was going on with the badges.”
The new system will hopefully clear up the complications and make things much easier, both for part-time workers thrown in the mix to work game days and those people involved in the scanning process.
“We have a phone next to the scanner, where you can call up credential control and say, ‘I’m supposed to be green right now, but am scanning red. We can instantaneously identify if there’s a glitch in the system,” Schultz said. “It (worked) amazing at Super Bowl. It empowers the staff standing there saying no to this person who’s saying, ‘Don’t you know who I am and why I’m supposed to be here?’ The reality is they don’t know who you are or what your function is. But if your badge shows red, you can use the phone and they’ll fix it for you.”
The fake credentials spotted by NFL officials are mostly badges that people print at home and game day workers are encouraged not to wear their credentials in public outside of the event to avoid scammers from stealing their identity and taking photos of badges on the street, she said.
The NFL isn’t the only professional sports league adopting biometric identification to enter stadiums.
The MLB will expand its facial recognition technology for ticketless entry.
