Clear, the relatively new biometrics company you may have seen (or used) at your local airport, is breaking the concessions industry wide open, implementing a simultaneous fingerprint ID verification and payment method for concessions at sports stadiums — most importantly, booze.
For now, it’s only at Seattle’s CenturyLink football stadium, and Safeco Field, home to the Seattle Mariners, but, pending its success, there’s a good chance this 2-in-1 system starts clearing the path to all sports stadiums.
Sports fans like to drink. And the only thing sports fans arguably like more than cheaper beer, is a faster way to get it.
According to a 2011 study, 48% of fans consumed alcohol at sporting events, and some 5k people at regular season NFL games left legally drunk by the end of them.
In other words, we give it one year before every sports fan enters a stadium wallet-free.
Clear is available at 38 airports and stadiums nationwide, including 15 teams across the NFL, MLB, and MLS circuits, but the Seahawks and Mariners deal marks the first time in the US that biometrics have combined for age verification and payment.
Last year, the biometrics company raised $15m from T. Rowe Price for exactly this goal, and now they’re seeing it come to life.