THE WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

If you want to see the future of venue ingress, security and ticketing, go to an airport. After 9/11, it became a mandate that every airport in the world ramp up their security procedures and protocols. Top of the list was to identify every single traveler who passed through the screening process. Passports and other identification can be forged or manipulated. So the United States, and many other countries throughout the world, turned to the one thing that can’t be altered — your biometrics, namely fingerprints and iris scans.
With this in mind, the CLEAR program was born. It started in airports. Known travelers can sign up with the company, and for a yearly fee, they can voluntarily turn over their fingerprints and an iris scan and bypass lengthy security lines.
It’s now been introduced in six major sports venues for seven pro teams, including AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami; Marlins Park, Miami, Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, New York City; Coors Field, Denver and AT&T Park, San Francisco.
Caryn Seidman Becker, CEO and founder, CLEAR, pulled the company out from bankruptcy seven years ago. “It was my desire to build a customer-experience company that strengthens security, delights customers and uses biometrics to do it,” she said.
Biometrics can be fingerprints, iris, face and even voice to establish someone’s identity.
“This should be a frictionless and secure experience,” said Seidman Becker. “Since 9/11, the customer experience has been made more difficult and our desire was to ease the difficulty, yet still maintain the same security standards currently being employed.”
Seidman Becker envisions a world where the CLEAR system can be used for security, identity, ticketing and purchasing.
Seidman Becker never believed CLEAR to be just an airport tool. “You can tie so many elements to your biometric identity, thus our platform approach as opposed to a product,” she said. “Once you prove that you are you, the possibilities of CLEAR’s use grow exponentially and it can be used in a variety of different verticals. You can use it for airports; to get into stadiums and to buy things.”
CLEAR can be tied into a credit card. Imagine the beer fast lane at a stadium, suggested Seidman Becker. “Walk up, scan your fingerprint and, because I know you are you, I know your age and I have your credit card associated with it. With the tap of a finger, you can move along in seconds.”
In the venues in which it’s being employed, fans first need to sign up and have their biometrics recorded. Once they are enrolled in the CLEAR system, they enter the venue through a special CLEAR lane where they tap their fingerprints and are given entry.
As of yet, CLEAR is not being used as a paperless ticket, but Seidman Becker said that that component is ready and, just as in an airport, fans will soon be able to bypass the ticket-taker altogether. 
Venues or teams pay CLEAR a licensing fee and it’s free for the venue’s customer, while airport customers pay a yearly fee of $179. CLEAR currently has 750,000 customers and the system has been used over 5 million times.
Venues are a small, but growing, component of CLEAR’s business. This was CLEAR’s first season with five major sports venues and, according to Seidman Becker, “there’s rapid growth in venues. Year over year, comparing 2015 to 2016, lane use was up over 500 percent at venues, while unique users were up almost 300 percent at venues.”
CLEAR is after a great predictable fan experience for entry into the stadium, she said. The next few pieces are to create opportunities for fans to use the system in-venue.
Seidman Becker pointed to a soccer match as a perfect example of where CLEAR is the future. “It’s 90 minutes of play and one short break,” she explained. “Getting people food and beverages quickly and safely is the only way to make money.”
CLEAR can also be used for in-seat ordering. “We’ve all been to a game where someone is passing down their ID and credit card to get a beer delivered. CLEAR eliminates that. The platform will drive fan experience and it is incredibly exciting to leagues, teams and venues.”
While no stadiums are using CLEAR as a payment method yet, Seidman Becker is looking at a 2017 launch for concessions and merchandise to be part of the CLEAR world using biometrics instead of cash. “Concessions come first, tickets come second,” she said.
There’s no major hardware for venues to buy. All that’s needed is an iPad and a little square box. Seidman Becker said currently 80 percent of the CLEAR customers use fingerprints while 20 percent use an iris scan.
She also stressed the safety of the customer’s biometric data. “The integrity of our data is the integrity of our company,” she said. “We use encryption among many other tools to keep our data safe from hackers.”
AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, has been using CLEAR since 2015. Bryanna Campbell, senior account manager of corporate partnership marketing, said the arena is always looking for new ways to enhance the fan experience and provide a seamless way of entry. “CLEAR has done a great job of activating,” she said. “They activate in the same location for every game which makes it easy for the fans.”
Campbell said fans are able to enroll at every game. She said a significant number of fans are using the service, especially the season ticket holders, many five times a season. CLEAR is also at Marlins Park, Miami, and Campbell said they’ve seen a lot of overlap.
“CLEAR gets its own lane which leads right into where the fan needs to scan their ticket,” she said. “We operate the same way an airport does, they go through CLEAR and then through all the normal security measures.”
Campbell believes it saves the fans time. “It just takes a matter of seconds to be ‘cleared,’” she said. “Depending on the day and time of the game, it can save anywhere from a few minutes to 30 minutes.”
“Sports stadiums are looking a lot more like airports,” said Seidman Becker. “There are lots of interesting lessons to be learned and venues are picking it up pretty quickly. We live in a digital world; we just move the digital information to paper at the moment. We aim to end that; there’s no reason for digital to be turned into analog anymore.”