As fans start to return to NHL buildings in larger capacities, how organizations clean arenas before and after events is going to come to the forefront of discussion.
For the Pittsburgh Penguins, and potentially soon other NHL teams, that means drones are getting to work.
The Penguins, who had their crowd capacity double from 4,672 to 9,344 from Game 1 to 2 of their first-round series with the New York Islanders, recently announced a partnership with AERAS, a Pittsburgh-based company that specializes in cleaning using electrostatic technology delivered by drones to sanitize and disinfect all surfaces, including the players’ benches and seats.
Each cleaning takes less than two hours and the current deal runs through the entirety of the 2022-23 season.
(Above video courtesy of AERAS)
The innovation and invention for AERAS was creating a system that can use electrostatic without disrupting a drone’s flight.