Mercedes-Benz Stadium just hosted the Super Bowl last month, and the AMB Group announced this week... [+] that it will also be the first pro sports venue to go completely cashless starting on Sunday. (AP Photo/Danny Karnik) Mercedes-Benz Stadium is only a year and a half old and has already hosted a Super Bowl, this past February. Before the last NFL season, it broke away from the norm by significantly lowering food and merchandise prices in-stadium, providing the lowest prices in the entire National Football League (NFL). The AMB Group, which owns and operates the stadium, continues to implement their progressive ideas and the Atlanta Falcons will become the first team in the NFL to adopt a completely cashless transactional model. While hot dogs will only cost their fans $1.50 at the venue, a fraction of the cost at other venues, fans will only be able to pay digitally, as cash will no longer be accepted. Right before the Super Bowl Visa, the NFL’s official partner envisioned that within the next five years the NFL’s biggest game would be cashless, but noted that it was not quite ready for immediate implementation. This announcement comes after a number of teams in professional sports have shifted to digital ticketing and the Tampa Bay Rays recently announced that they will be the first team to switch to completely cashless sales, starting this month at the beginning of the 2019 MLB season. This progression appears inevitable and Falcons owner Arthur Blank is ready to move forward with the new business model. Starting this Sunday, March 10, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium will stop accepting cash for all sporting events and nearly all additional events at the venue. While the Falcons get most of the attention for the stadium, it is also the home of Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United and hosts the SEC Football Championship game each season. "Arthur Blank repeatedly challenges us to find innovative ways to further improve operations across our businesses," said Steve Cannon, AMB Group CEO. Cannon says the success of the concession price reductions gave them the confidence to move to a cash-free stadium model. There are many goals in making this change. Venues want transactions to be as efficient as possible in order to increase the volume of sales and generate more revenue. It is fan friendly as well because no one likes waiting in line when their favorite team is close to scoring a touchdown or making a big play on the field, but for the present demographics, this implementation also has downside risk. VIDEO While society has fully embraced many cashless options, a sizable portion of consumers still uses cash exclusively. It does professional teams no good to exclude or deter these customers from participating in their sporting events. Chris Curtin of Visa spoke about these implementation challenges in the lead up to last month’s Super Bowl. “Part of what we talk a lot about with the NFL is getting a path to cashless events, and the epicenter is the Super Bowl,” said Chris Curtin, Visa’s chief brand and innovation marketing officer. “We are working on an architecture that will get us there, it’s something we are really keen on. We want an experience from head to toe will be a cashless experience. The NFL has agreed to partner with us in making that a reality. That is where our energy is now. We have a lot of learnings from other partnerships such as the Olympics and World Cup, we would like to apply those learnings to this experience and make it engaging and rewarding and inviting to fans.” The AMB Group has a plan to facilitate these fans by providing 10 reverse ATM machines in the stadium. Fans insert their cash and receive a Visa Debit card that they can use at all vendors within the arena. There will be a small fee for this transaction, but the AMB Group will pick up that cost. "A little investment to make it as seamless as possible for fans," said Cannon. It is unclear if the machines will also be able to return unused cash to fans before they leave the stadium. The Falcons’ moves on the business side have proven to be effective as they improved their bottom line by 15 perfect this past season after slashing their concession prices. If this becomes a trend, it will likely be a welcome one for fans and adopted by other similar venues in pro and collegiate sports. According to Cannon, implementation of cashless payments has the ability to speed up transactions by 20-30 seconds each. That sort of efficiency will allow for a large increase in the volume of transactions during a Falcons game as fans will feel less constrained about getting into a concession line and will spend less time waiting once they get there. With the Tampa Bay Rays’ implementation on March 28th, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be the first venue in pro sports to go fully cashless, by a few weeks. There will be a period of adjustment to the new cashless model for fans, but the availability of in-house debit cards for fans that carry cash should smooth the implementation. Time will tell, but it appears that there is a cashless future at most sporting events. The only question is when not if.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of Major League Soccer side US United, is poised to become the first Atlanta pro sports venue to adopt a fully cash-free payment model. From 10 March, the venue began accepting digital payments only. To serve fans who carry only cash, the stadium will feature reverse ATMs, which exchange cash for a Visa debit card.