As part of a league-wide NFL credentialing program, Tampa Bay utilized Wicket’s integration with Accredit Solutions for the first time during Week 3 of 2024 preseason as they hosted the Miami Dolphins at Raymond James Stadium.
Tampa Bay fully embraced the use of biometric technology from the start, which placed them near the top of usage among NFL teams -and laying the foundation for expanded use across their stadium.
In an effort to increase accountability in the use of credentials for secure access at team venues, the NFL rolled out a league-wide program in 2024 following a successful 6 team pilot in 2023. Tampa Bay was able to use the feedback and learnings from Wicket and those pilot teams to easily onboard this new technology into its gameday workflows.
With the help of Wicket, Accredit, and the NFL, security staff at Tampa Bay were quickly brought up to speed on best practices in using this technology, which enabled them to deploy at all checkpoints and process over 12,000 entries on Day 1 of usage.
After seeing immediate success, Tampa Bay doubled down and optimized entry into the locker rooms, playing field, and press box using Wicket access points. For the rest of the season Tampa Bay would average 3,500 users and 14,500 access scans per week.
Tampa Bay began to look for opportunities to improve the flow of people through high traffic areas across the stadium, and began to deploy more devices at these locations.
Credential holders simply need to take a selfie photo as part of registration through Accredit
Use of Wicket has created a better experience for security staff by reducing manual credential checks
Facial authentication eliminates the ability to share credentials or use fraudulent credentials for access
The results speak for themselves, and gameday at Raymond James Stadium has never been more secure.
The stadium operations team was able to identify problem areas, such as the check-in location for their food and beverage service staff and other high traffic locations, and increase the number of Wicket devices to improve people flow into the inner perimeter.
Staff education was prioritized, which led to a better understanding of the technology and how to use it.
By going “fully biometric”, Tampa Bay has quickly become an early leader in the use of facial authentication in sports in the process, and is now using the Wicket platform as part of their Express Entry program that allows fans to use their face to scan their tickets.
“The use of Wicket’s facial authentication platform and their built-in integrations have optimized the technology we rely on and revolutionized our overall stadium operations. The full scale rollout of the NFL credentialing program proved that value to us, and our organization has already begun to implement and expand upon these solutions in other areas.”
Micah Day
Vice President of Stadium Operations, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
