We’re seeing some information leak regarding Seattle Kraken (NHL) and Climate Pledge Arena concessions, as Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke says his team is working with Amazon on contactless concessions similar to Amazon Go stores.
Honestly, this isn’t a surprising move: the big concessionaires have all been moving toward contactless concessions even before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live sports. The New York Mets installed a limited number of contactless kiosks at Citi Field in the 2019 season, which used CLEAR fingerprint technology to process transactions, while the Seattle Mariners began working on a contactless plan in 2018.
In the case of Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, arena officials are working with naming-rights partner Amazon to implement Amazon Go technology for self-serve contactless concessions. In this case, the transactions are truly contactless: you literally just grab merchandise and go, and Amazon processes the transactions automatically. Not needing to scan items may speed things up a little.
Climate Pledge Arena is set to open this fall for the 2021-2022 NHL season. The arena was previously named Washington State Coliseum and the Seattle Center Coliseum. It began life as the Washington State Pavilion for the Century 21 Exposition and Seattle World’s Fair. Designed by Paul Thiry initially as an expo space, the Washington State Pavilion featured a signature hyperbolic roofline—a roofline that survived two renovations, one to convert the facility to an arena and a later expansion to the KeyArena configuration. The 18,100-seat venue is expected to host 200 events each year, including NHL Seattle, three-time WNBA world champion Seattle Storm, live music and entertainment, and City of Seattle community events. You can read more about the arena design here.
RELATED STORIES: Climate Pledge Arena opening still set for fall 2021; New for 2021: Climate Pledge Arena; New for 2021-2022: Seattle Kraken
