SEATTLE, WA – JULY 09: The Seattle Mariners play the Oakland Athletics in the first inning at Safeco Field on July 9, 2017 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Lindsey Wasson/Getty Images)

As Major League Baseball stadiums have added metal detectors and stepped up their security efforts in recent years, going to games has felt more and more like passing through an airport. And although you might very well consider that a bad thing, the league now seems to be leaning into it.

According to the Associated Press, the Atlanta Braves, Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners are all adding express lines for CLEAR members this season, bringing the total number of teams employing the system to nine. Via the AP:

“Sports venues are starting to look more and more like airports from a security and experience perspective,” Lauren Stangel, CLEAR’s head of sports and events, said Thursday. “Baseball stadiums, in particular, you have 40,000 to 50,000 people entering through the gates, almost 50 percent of which come between 15 minutes before and first pitch.”

All 30 major league ballparks have had metal detectors at fan gates since the start of the 2015 season. That has led to backups as fans enter some stadiums.

“That looked very similar to what JFK [airport] can look like on early Monday mornings,” Stangel said.

CLEAR is a system, available in 24 airports across the country for a $179 annual membership, that uses fingerprint and iris scans to verify travelers’ identities and allow them to bypass traditional security lines. It reached its first two baseball stadiums (Yankee Stadium and Coors Field) in 2015, then found its way to two more (Marlins Park, Citi Field) the next year and another (Comerica Park) before last season. AT&T Park in San Francisco uses CLEAR as well.

CLEAR says its stadium access is free to anyone who signs up for the service.

During the recent metal-detector boom, baseball stadiums have become oddly emblematic of the eternal tradeoff between security and convenience, as fans have been subjected to long lines and extended waits. On one hand, it’s great that baseball has put up barriers to people bringing guns into games. On the other, most fans really just want to get to their seats as quickly as possible.

Given that security is what it is, however, adding CLEAR probably makes some sense. With the system, at least some fraction of fans can bypass the extensive screenings waiting for them at every gate, while maybe those maddeningly long lines will get just a little bit shorter.

[Associated Press]

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.