For Boise State Athletics, fiddling with your phone to pull up a ticket while in line for games might just be a thing of the past.
For the last five games of the basketball season, Boise State Athletics implemented face identification technology through a third-party organization, Wicket. Currently described as a “premium entry” for students, Chris Hall, assistant athletic director for event services, said he wanted to get the technology out in front of donors and spectators before fully launching the service across university athletic events.
“The facial authentication becomes a token tied to your Ticketmaster account through Wicket — but it’s never data stored or data kept,” Chris Kutz, senior associate athletic director, external affairs, said.
Kutz explained nearly 100 people at each of the five games have used face ID through the pilot program, and that it has cut the wait time for lines in half. Hall added the technology also streamlines the process of scanning multiple tickets or transferring them.
“If there are five tickets tied to my Ticketmaster account, instead of me swiping and tapping to gain entry, I can just select the ones that are here, and then everything else works straight through our Bronco Sports app and Ticketmaster to transfer any unused tickets to other people who may come to the game later.”
The process is simple: log in to Ticketmaster, snap a selfie and let the tablet scan your face in line.
Hall said while a decision hasn’t been made, the end goal is to expand to all athletic events, including football so that “once you’re in the system,” you’re covered across sporting events.
“We want to make sure the experience to get in our stadiums is easy and no one’s missing kickoff or missing opening tip because the line is outside the door,” Kutz said.
