Our weekly tech round-up from the stadium and arena sector…
Levy and Texas A&M Athletics have announced plans to introduce three food and beverage stores at Kyle Field that will be equipped with Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.
The stores are slated to open in the autumn so Texas A&M fans can experience them during the college football season. Kyle Field is one of the biggest stadiums in the world and attracts crowds of over 100,000 for most games.
To shop at the stores, fans can enter by inserting their credit card or hovering their palm over an Amazon One device at the entry gate. The Just Walk Out technology determines what items shoppers take from or return to the shelves, and when they leave, the credit card they inserted or linked to their Amazon One ID will be charged for the items they took, with no checkout required.
Kyle Field becomes the latest sports venue to be fitted with Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, joining the likes of T-Mobile Park, UBS Arena, The Forum, Climate Pledge Arena and TD Garden.
Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology won the Product Innovation Award at last week’s TheStadiumBusiness Awards.
Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL’s New England Patriots and Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution, has entered into a partnership with Evolv Technology, a leader in weapons detection security screening.
As part of the deal, Gillette Stadium will use the company’s Evolv Express Systems platform, which combines sensor technology with artificial intelligence and analytics to help ensure safer public venues. The technology also provides more accurate threat detection while getting visitors to their seats faster.
Evolv’s systems will eliminate long lines at Gillette Stadium as the technology can spot weapons and other potential threats while ignoring other items such as keys, loose change and phones.
The NFL is expanding its virtual commemorative ticket NFT offerings for fans during the 2022 season as part of its relationship with Ticketmaster.
NFTs will be distributed at over 100 games, including the season opener between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. Last season, the NFL successfully distributed more than 500,000 complimentary virtual commemorative ticket NFTs.
During the 2022 season, the league will offer NFTs to every attendee at more than 100 games, including at least three home games from all 32 clubs. NFTs will also be issued at every week-one game. Fans will become eligible to receive a virtual commemorative ticket when they scan their ticket upon entry to the stadium.
Check out our sister site TheTicketingBusiness.com for the full story.
Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome has added GUTS Tickets to the list of its preferred ticketing partners alongside Ticketmaster and Eventim.
GUTS Tickets previously provided ticketing for several shows at the Ziggo Dome. Every ticket bought through GUTS Tickets can be claimed as an NFT collectible.
The 17,000-capacity Ziggo Dome, which is located adjacent to Johan Cruijff ArenA, said it believes NFTs can solve some of the major challenges within ticketing events.
Head to TheTicketingBusiness.com for more details.
A new jumbo-sized video screen has been fitted at Cbus Super Stadium, home of Australian NRL team the Gold Coast Titans.
The screen will debut today (Thursday) as the stadium hosts a friendly football match between A-League team Brisbane Roar and English Premier League club Leeds United.
The screen is 175 square metres, almost three times the size of the original. The new screen will also consume less energy and will soon be complemented by a second screen in the south-west corner of the stadium, which will be fitted in October.
National League football club Wrexham is nearing completion on the installation of a new scoreboard at the University End of the Racecourse Ground.
Wrexham said the new scoreboard represents a huge upgrade on the previous screen, which is no longer in working order. The new screen is bigger than the previous one but will not negatively impact sightlines for supporters.
Wrexham last month received permission from the council to demolish the Kop end at the Racecourse Ground ahead of the planned construction of a new 5,500-capacity stand.
