With the World Cup underway, I have a feeling most of the world is tuned in to Brazil to experience the excitement that only comes around every 4 years. I wouldn’t normally consider myself a fan of soccer, but I found myself watching the second half of the USA vs Portugal game and getting a little bit more excited than I had expected…
To show just how amped up the world gets over the FIFA World Cup, here are some stats from the 2006 and 2010 World Cups:
- 715.1 million people watched the 2006 FIFA World Cup final match
- Over 3 million people attended the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany
- Nearly 200,000 gallons of beer were sold at the 2010 World Cup
- Nearly 400,000 hot dogs were sold by vendors at the 2010 World Cup
That’s a lot of people attending and watching the matches. And beer drank. And hotdogs eaten. How could we possibly track all of those people, food, and drinks? Printers and RFID.
With millions of international fans attending the World Cup, tracking who’s coming in and out can be chaotic. By printing receipts or tickets embedded with RFID technology, tracking who entered and exited the stadium is as simple as setting up active RFID sensors at the gates as people walk through. That way, the World Cup staff can control the flow of people coming in and going out of the stadium, as well as collect more accurate stats about how many people attended the event.
And as for the stadium foods, fans have two choices: wait in line and miss a chunk of the match (and hope that you don’t miss any goals) or watch the game and wait for a vendor to walk by selling food and drinks. While these food vendors have typically accepted cash only, mobile computers and printers (like the Zebra MZ220) now make it possible to accept credit cards and print receipts as another form of payment. Technology in hand, all of those people who don’t carry cash on them don’t need to stand in line at concessions and miss that game-winning goal. Sounds like a winning combination to me!
Are you watching the World Cup? Who are you cheering for? Let us know on Twitter, @LTronCorp!
About the author
RAD DeRose is the President & CEO of L-Tron Corporation. He has over 30 years experience in industrial automation and data collection solutions and brings a deep industry knowledge-base on the challenges faced in the commercial and public safety sectors.