Facial recognition might be coming to a sporting arena near you. As sports leagues fight to make attending event as touchless as possible due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Wall Street Journal report says that some teams may consider adopting the technology in order to help put fans back in the stands.
The New York Mets and Los Angeles Football Club are two teams that are currently testing facial recognition, according to the report. The mobile app in question, Clear, is one that would take a selfie fans upload to their account and link it to their Ticketmaster profile.
The Mets are using this same system to verify players, coaches and staff entering their stadium. It also takes their temperatures. They are also expected to test it for the use of fans.
Very few leagues and sporting events in the United States have opened their doors to fans following the shutdown of sports in March. Even those who do invite fans into their events are doing so at a minimal capacity. As the pandemic shows no signs of stopping soon and people start to reimagine how the world will look even when the numbers do go down significantly more, sports arenas are starting to plan for how they'd eventually be able to safely get fans back at live games.
