When a sporting spectator receives a lifetime ban from a stadium for racism, vandalism, violence, streaking, etc. how is that enforced? There are tens of thousands of people who attend each game. What is a stop them from coming back? How does the banning process and enforcement work?
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A combination of not letting that name purchase tickets, facial recognition software, and the knowledge that there is an extremely harsh punishment for getting caught there again.
The answer typically is that it isn’t enforced in the moment unless you’re a repeat offender constantly causing issues to the point that the random security guards can recognize you.
Bcuz the don’t check IDs going into stadiums or anything.
But, if you did get banned, and then did go back and caused trouble and got caught again, on top of kicking you out again, they could try and get you charged with trespassing, an actual crime
Facial recognition software and AI for CCTV in general has come a long way in the last 10 years. Your face will be added to a blacklist and flagged within 30 seconds for review – and any high-end system will keep track of you across multiple cameras for an operator to guide physical resources towards you.
These systems are at the point where they can also accurately detect violence and firearms, and operators can broad search livestreams from radio reports with terms like “blue hat, grey sweatshirt, black pants” and instantly track anyone who meets that criteria (or met that criteria previously and has since changed clothes – cross referenced with facial and gait recognition amongst others).
For public safety it’s great, looking ahead to the future though there is potential for misuse.
So I worked for a while in lower tier English football, so my answer would be specific to that.
We had our own list, with photos of people banned from our stadium. The visiting team would also send us a photo list of their banned supporters. The CCTV operators would then scan the crowds as they enter and once they were already in.
Our policy was to let the banned supporters buy a ticket, enter the stadium, go buy their food and drinks, then throw them out. Rather than stop them at the gate, cause a big hold up getting everyone else in and then losing the ticket sale.
There was one guy brought a ticket, came in, we kicked him out, he went to another entrance, brought another ticket, came in again and we kicked him out again.
Sometimes banned supporters would get in unnoticed, but honestly they’re the sort of people who always draw attention to themselves anyway, so they usually get spotted and chucked at some point.
There was a national ban list but it was just names, so basically unusable as we don’t ID people coming in.
*What did you do*, OP?
Besides what some of the other comments have said; there’s one simple way to making it harder for banned individuals to attend games, and I know they do this in England with more severe cases. Individuals are required to check in, in person, at the local police station at match start time.
Sure, they could still manage to find a way to buy tickets and still get to the game late, but it’s at least much more difficult and less and less value for them.
As others have said, it depends on the country, sport, league, and venue. Options include:
* Requiring you to physically check-in at the local police station at the start of the game;
* Stopping you from purchasing under your name; and
* Lists/photos given to ticket-takers and security watching cams.
Many of these people are season ticket holders at their favorite club. Tickets cancelled
There is also a rise in e-ticket and app-based systems vs physical tickets. Instituted to cut down on scalping and counterfeiting. But it ties tickets to specific users and makes banning orders easier to enforce.
It depends on the venue, but I believe Madison Square Garden is actually using face tracking on banned fans to identify them.
https://slate.com/technology/2023/03/madison-square-garden-facial-recognition-stadiums-list.html#:~:text=In%20recent%20months%2C%20Madison%20Square,getting%20flagged%20by%20the%20software.
Very generally, if a place is open to the public, and you get asked to leave and not come back, the rules change for you.
Now being there is trespassing. Now they can call the cops for you being there.
It’s not that they can keep you out, but it’s that they have your picture and since they’ve told you that you don’t belong and you came anyway, it’s actionable.
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