Mercedes-Benz Stadium is again cutting concessions prices and is sprinting to the front of the line in the race to go cashless at sports venues.
AMB Group, which owns the stadium, the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, will roll out the strategy beginning with the United’s March 10 home match against FC Cincinnati. Prices will be reduced on five of the top concessions items, building on a strategy that began in 2017 when the stadium opened.
The ATL Bud Burger is among the discounted items.mercedes-benz stadium
Like the lower pricing, the cash-free approach for sales of merchandise, tickets and concessions also will be deployed for Falcons games, concerts and other events.
The move will make the stadium the first major U.S. venue to go cash free. Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays, has announced a similar plan that will start later this spring at the start of the 2019 MLB season. Going cashless is seen as a way to speed transactions, reduce wait time for guests and remove the costs, security and logistics of handling cash.
Ten “reverse ATMs” will be installed throughout the stadium where fans can exchange cash for Visa debit cards that can be used at the stadium or for outside purchases. AMB Group will absorb the transaction fee.
“Unlike cash machines that usually charge you a service fee, there will be no service fees for this conversion from cash to debit cards,” said Steve Cannon, CEO of AMB Group.
Levy Restaurants is the concessionaire at the stadium. NCR is the venue’s transaction systems partner so it will handle payment processing and the kiosks that will be used to exchange cash for debit cards.
AMB Group started moving toward cash-free sales last year by adding more cashless points of sale. Cannon said the tests were successful, showing no drop in per-cap spending or transaction volumes, and gave the ownership the confidence for a full rollout.
Going cashless is the latest example of AMB Group’s willingness to take new approaches to the game-day experience. The stadium opened in 2017 by blowing up the model for concessions by offering low-priced food and drinks from concessionaire Levy. The stadium dropped prices on additional products in 2018.
Now, the stadium’s third year will see more price cuts highlighted by hot dogs going to $1.50 from $2 and chips and salsa to $2.50 from $3. Concessions transactions will have no minimums and AMB Group will absorb the card-processing fees.
AMB Group reported after its first year of the lower prices that the strategy actually boosted concessions revenue and per-cap spending.
