Results: RFID and Identity Management in everyday life - ITAS

currently 50,000 member card and season ticket holders. A plastic card costs about 1.20 pounds
and a paper ticket is about 0.40 pounds [45, 46].
Currently, the club has embarked on the development of an e-purse system, a loyalty scheme and
integration of the RFID environment to other services, like parking or public transport. The e-purse
system not only facilitates the transactions executed at the ground, it also gives the stadium
management insight in the expenditures of each supporter. This way they can see who are the
clubs’ ’big-spenders’ and link this to their CRM scheme. Finally, it can help to prevent theft by
stadium personnel. One of our respondents is quite happy with these developments. He is in favour
of extending the RFID environment to the possibility of paying for your drinks and food and paying at
the car park [20, 45, 51].
In the stadium there is a Closed-Circuit television (CCTV) environment. Mr. Hanson tells about the
possibility of using this to take pictures of supporters or to supervise the ground. Together with the
ticketing system, the stadium knows exactly who is sitting at a certain seat. When a supporter is not
following the rules or is having a dispute with personnel, the CCTV system can serve as proof and
adequate action can be undertaken [45].
The SmartController module makes it possible to observe personnel of the stadium. Also,
integration of this module with stewards’ payrolls is an opportunity [46, 49]. Though currently not
used this way, stewards can get to their workplace without using RFID tokens, Mr. Hanson is being
optimistic about the options and is looking into future implementation [45, 47].
The Smart Stadium Solution is used in several other stadiums around Europe. Also, several schools
and universities implemented a similar RFID application named the Smart Campus Solution.
Because all venues use the same technology, it is possible to integrate them. In Reading for
instance, it is possible for students of the Thames Valley University to use their RFID student pass
to access the Madejski Stadium [20, 45].
The stadium management obtains data on everyone who visits the venue, which is stored and
updated in a supporters’ card history. A member cardholder commented on this: “It [retaining and
updating the card history, red.] is good so they can see who are the better supporters.” Another
supporter thinks the level of personal information held at this moment is acceptable, but it should not
extent further. His reaction: “I think that games attended and [loyalty] points are a good idea. [..] all
the personally information they need is at a correct level but any more will feel a bit like big brother
is watching you.” [45, 50, 51].
The data in the card history can be informative both in an integrated and in an individual
format.Firstly, combining all the data gives insight in statistics. The management can for instance
see at what time people tend to enter the stadium and how many regulars and non-regulars visit a
match. But it also gives security department insight in the number of people at each stand in case of
emergency. Supporters do not seem to mind the fact that this information is generated; all our
respondents think it is fine that the stadium collects some information about their supporters, but it
should only remain accessible for their football club and not to third parties [45, 50, 51]
Secondly, data in individual card histories can be used for several purposes. For instance to verify
claims from supporters. Mr. Hanson gives the example of a supporter re-claiming money for missing
part of the game. The card-history can confirm whether this is actually the case. It can also be used
in security plans or loyalty schemes. Security department holds and updates watch lists to register
unwanted people. When presenting the RFID ticket to the readers in the turnstiles your record is
compared to the watch list and access is either granted or denied. Supporters do not seem to mind
the use of information for security purposes: “this [link of card history to security department, red.]
then helps keep good fans in the club and get rid of troublemakers”. Having a loyalty scheme means
that the stadium management is actively approaching its visitors; giving them special offers on their
birthday, giving them priority on popular matches, asking them why they ended their season ticket or
why they did not buy a new away T-shirt this year. This could be experienced as invasive by the
targets of these actions. However, when investigating supporters’ opinions, this appears not to be
the case. A regular of the Madejski said on this “I know they collect my personal information. As
long as they use it for football purposes it is fine with me”. Another regular commented: “Yes this
[link of personal card history to loyalty schemes, red.] is good so you get a benefit for attending
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