Tech upgrades to SF Giants’ Oracle Park aimed at removing friction from fan experience – News

Today is the 25^th opening day at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants baseball team, and new technologies will be a star attraction.

In mid-March, the Giants held a media event to discuss the latest and greatest with the team. Though much of the discussion was with the new players as well as fun information, such as which players would have bobbleheads this season, I was there to learn about the technology upgrades coming to the park.

The most notable changes this season are to the concessions where the team is bringing in three different providers to simplify the concession for the fan. These include:

AiFi frictionless ExtraMile beverage marketplace

This is a “grab-and-go” store where a fan can scan a credit card, walk in, pick items and walk out. AiFi is like Zippin and Amazon Just Walk Out in its ease of use for the consumer.

These solutions use camera vision and AI to understand what consumers are grabbing from the shelves are extremely accurate but do require a dedicated amount of space and typically some construction to be done, which is why most venues have a limited number of these. Because these systems use cameras, they must be able to “see” the items, so they are ideal for packaged goods but do struggle with items such as hot foods that are in generic packaging.

After media day, Giants Chief Information Officer Bill Schlough, widely regarded as one of the top sports CIOs, gave me a tour of the stores and we talked about why the club is using AiFi. He told me all three grab-and-go vendors are similar in experience, but it was AiFi’s ability to integrate with season ticket holder programs and other back-end systems that helped it win Oracle Park.

Mashgin Doggie Diner self-check-out systems

While AiFi is grab and go, Mashgin is grab, place on a scanner, pay and go. This makes it an ideal solution for hot foods as it can scan barcodes and understand what’s in a closed package.

One of the big advantages of Mashgin brings is there is no requirement to do construction although Oracle Park is building a diner-like environment for it. The Mashgin technology is a standalone scanner and can be placed anywhere. Typically sporting venues do put them in a closed environment to prevent people from grabbing food and walking off, but the tech itself is the network-connected scanner.

Tapin2 self-order kiosk

For those fans who want a partial self-service experience, the Tapin2 stations will allow patrons to order from a screen, pay for the item and pick up the order assembled by a person.

While the combination of AiFi, Mashgin and Tapin2 will make eating and drinking easier at Oracle Park, there are a handful of other upgrades that will improve game day experience.

For one, Oracle Park will be expanding its Go-Ahead Entry systems. Last season the park became the second venue in Major League Baseball to deploy the facial recognition entry systems.

I’ve used the system and was impressed with ease of set up and how fast it works. A patron can upload a photo into the MLB Ballpark App and when passing through a Go-Ahead Entry gate, the system will greet the fan and post how many are in the party, and everyone simply walks through. In 2024, Oracle deployed four Go-Ahead stations deployed across two gates – Second and King, and Lefty O’Doul. This year a fifth will be added at the Marina Gate. It’s a great experience and I encourage everyone going to a game to try it.

The 6-gigahertz spectrum for Wi-Fi 6E will be turned on. In 2023, the Giants deployed Extreme Networks Wi-Fi 6E access points but could not turn on the 6Ghz spectrum because it was not yet approved for outdoor use. In December of 2024, the FCC finally gave it the OK and fans with 6Ghz capable devices will see a noticeable bump in speeds. In stadium environments, the best speeds I have seen with 5Ghz is about 300 megabits per second, but with 6Ghz, fans can expect to get close to a gigabit per second given the right circumstances, such as proximity to access points.

Technology has certainly become a critical part of fan experience at all sporting events. The upgrades to Oracle Park will allow fans to enter the stadium faster and reduce the friction in ordering food and beverage allowing for more time to be spent watching and less time standing in line. That’s a win for the people paying to watch the games.

Photo: Zeus Kerravala