If you want to build a sports stadium that generates lots of money not just for the team, but also for local businesses in the surrounding area, build it in a part of town that’s pedestrian-friendly.
At least that’s what data from Square indicates. WIRED asked the payment-processing company to look at the sales data collected from the areas surrounding several baseball stadiums on opening day. Then, we cross-referenced the sales data with how well or poorly those stadiums performed in WalkScore, the website that ranks physical properties by how accessible they are to pedestrian foot traffic. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, the most pedestrian-friendly ballparks generated a lot more revenue for local merchants on opening day.
Common sense would indicate that baseball stadiums in more walkable parts of town generate a lot of revenue for nearby merchants. But it’s also not the kind of thing we’ve been able to typically measure directly, and certainly not almost instantly. Moreover, a lot of these merchants may not even be there most days. Square can follow a mobile merchant–say, a food truck, or coffee cart, or souvenir vendor–around town. It can query the data it’s collecting based on parameters like time and location as well as type of item being sold (thanks to its inventory management software), processing it in all sorts of different ways. It’s impressive — partly because it indicates that Square is thinking of new directions for its business. Which is also probably exactly why Square agreed to share its data with us.
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