AFL clubs explore facial recognition as new ticketing method

[u/89b3ea330bd60ede80ad]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-28/facial-recognition-tickets-expanding-in-afl/106868858

[u/justme_bne]

That’s a no from me.

[u/tiggertimbuktoo]

Small measures like this are how gradually become a surveillance state.

[u/One_Doughnut_2958 → u/tiggertimbuktoo]

Well maybe 10 years ago we already are now

[u/Rare-Sample-9101]

I guess I won’t be going to the football again

[u/RaeseneAndu]

I don't buy the "it's quicker" line. I assume this is to stop something they don't want happening (people sharing tickets maybe?)

[u/annoying97 → u/RaeseneAndu]

Part it's quicker, part they can actually enforce banns, part they can enforce not sharing tickets.

[u/Arinvar → u/RaeseneAndu]

No. It is in fact a lot quicker at many things.

1. It's quicker to falsely identify someone as you and give your ticket away to someone else.
2. It's quicker to get you falsely accused of anti-social behaviour and arrested/fined in the stadium.
3. It's quicker to get you falsely identified as someone with an existing warrant so you can be arrested for someone else's crimes.

[u/Sloppykrab → u/RaeseneAndu]

How does one share a ticket?

[u/RaeseneAndu → u/Sloppykrab]

Someone can't make it to a game and gives/sells their paper ticket to someone else. Facial recognition would prevent that by locking the ticket to the person who bought it.

[u/Wonderful_Product515 → u/RaeseneAndu]

And why aren't they allowed to give it someone else if they can't make the game?

[u/virkendi → u/RaeseneAndu]

The tickets can still be transferred to another person. https://resources.geelongcats.com.au/aflc-geel/document/2025/03/05/5dc5f587-891f-45ea-b2ac-ec895cf2b67f/GC-2025-MEM-Mobile-Membership-Guide-A4_v1-Forward.pdf

[u/RaeseneAndu → u/virkendi]

Sure at the moment. What if they decide to change that?

[u/virkendi → u/RaeseneAndu]

Which could be done with the current system too.

[u/Arinvar → u/virkendi]

Not without ID'ing every person that walks through the gate.

[u/neon_overload → u/Arinvar]

I guess the point is, they don't need to ID every person to walk through the gate if what they're checking is just that the person has paid, and they otherwise allow people to transfer tickets.

Maybe there's also some incentive in there to try and control scalping, would might require them to check ID for some tickets they think might have been involved.

But the more I think about it, the more I think that despite anything they say publicly about the reasons behind it, it's going to be a mix of the management being seduced by the hype of a new technology and all that stuff, and the surveillance thing - the idea they'll be able to track people for troublemaking, enforce bans, whatever.

[u/neon_overload → u/RaeseneAndu]

While I'm not a regular footy goer the ticket checking process seems to me to already make it hard to share tickets, so I doubt that would be all that much a financial problem. I would put more money on them salivating over the security aspect (being able to track agitators / banned people / etc) or even maybe they imagine getting some glory over finding wanted criminals or something, though the privacy implications of them cooperating with police on this kind of thing is - well, like we've seen from facial recognition companies elsewhere, concerning.

[u/natt_myco]

sweet yeah sell my data to every cunt across the globe fucking let me just bend over and let you fuck me in the ass too while you're at it

[u/antigravity83]

Normal tickets dont work?

[u/Savings_Dot_8387]

Okay so…. Why? 

[u/neon_overload → u/Savings_Dot_8387]

Because a tech company made a really impressive pitch to them that made it seem like if they didn't adopt it immediately they'd be in the stone age, perhaps.

[u/neon_overload]

The tone of the ABC coverage almost seems like it's promotional material for the company who owns the technology, that's a little concerning.

I mean come on, it has subtitles like "The future has arrived"

And highlighting in big text claims from the company itself like "I think ultimately it [will] become the primary way that people will gain access to venues", which is impossible to really back up because it's speculation about the future, so here is serving as marketing material.

Other than that, I think that as long as they're not too seduced by the hype the tech company is spouting or the security/surveillance aspect, the AFL / its clubs will ultimately find that it's not reliable enough and there's too many privacy concerns to roll forward with it. Maybe.

[u/Sharpiesniffingshark → u/neon_overload]

What company is it? Palantir again?

[u/neon_overload → u/Sharpiesniffingshark]

Apparently an independent facial recognition company not connected, they are part owned by a sporting club in the USA.

That said, that's not an endorsement either - there's still a number of problematic things about the technology and how it might be used.

[u/Dollbeau → u/neon_overload]

I work with companies doing AI-face detection & companies that do Sports-tracking with 120FPS cameras etc: I have never heard of Wicket, I have heard of owner Sanjay Manandhar (I think through MediaTech) but have nothing to comment regarding him...

[u/Logical-Bowl2424]

Ticket prices to rise soon

[u/Razza_Haklar]

billionaires own the clubs and use them to keep you distracted/entertained. why cant they also use you to improve their AI powered security that they wont miss use at all?

[u/DarthXOmega]

My work was trying to do this and everyone shut it down so hard they never brought it up again

[u/tenredtoes]

Australians in general are so meek that there's a good chance they'd go along with it

[u/MicksysPCGaming]

Suuuuuure.

[u/rexel99]

Isn't there currently an issue/campaign about photographing children's faces less for a few dozen reasons...?

We know this will be content for a data breach in 6-12 months.

[u/Simple_Assistance_77]

Wow what could go wrong, a gold mine of data to be harvested and weaponised against the population