Sports venues around the world adjust to COVID-19
Temperature checks in Japan, a disinfectant tunnel in Israel, and timed entry in Australia.
These are just a few of the ways sports venues around the world are adjusting their businesses in pandemic times.
As fans trickle back into stadiums, tech companies have stepped in to help create safer environments for them.
Kim Damron is the President and CEO of an analytics company called Paciolan:
"The one thing we're seeing now is whether you are the Olympics, college football or the NBA, we're all working twenty times harder to get fans in and the fans want to be there so I do feel more optimistic than I have as these events continue to add fans."
Paciolan provides fans with contactless tickets, interactive seat maps and 'pod' ticketing which allows groups of two, four, or six to purchase seating socially distanced from other spectators.
"We have been identified at the top of many leagues in Australia and America as a resurgence comeback technology that allows for fans to feel more comfortable as they re-enter the sports industry after Covid in this new normal."
Zachary Klima is one the founders of WaitTime an artificial intelligence mobile app developed to help fans know where the longest lines are around a stadium.
Cameras throughout a venue send real-time information to operators who can track and then respond to unsafe overcrowding of fans.
"It's not just about finding the shortest line. These are risk zones. So what used to be a long line is now a COVID risk zone," Klima said.
Another company working to make watching live sports safer is Populous.
The architectural design firm is working with an NBA team in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to create safe, socially-distanced spaces for fans to gather. It plans to use shipping containers to host small bubbles of friends who will be able to order food and drink to their pod.
With the Olympic games set for 2021 and COVID-19 infections on the rise in many countries around the world, Olympics organizers have yet to decide whether to allow spectators into venues next year and if so, how many.
