Can Major Sporting and Concert Venues Completely Move Away From Accepting Cash?

About a year and a half ago, I was at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island watching my favorite team, the New York Islanders play. The "old barn" as the locals like to call it has been around for over 45 years and I have been going to games their since I was six. As I had done many times before, I waited online at the concession stand in between periods to buy some food, and I planned on paying with a twenty dollar bill. But when I got to the counter there was a sign that said "this is a cashless concession stand." At the time it seemed ridiculous to me that the concession stands would not take cash. But after going to other venues and seeing the same cashless concession signs I began to realize that there are many reasons why big venues are moving on from cash.

Signs like this are slowly beginning to pop up at major sporting/concert venues.

 To start, there are obvious reasons why a major venue would no longer accept cash. First, it is safer for a venue to not have cash in their drawers because stealing cash has always been somewhat of a problem. It is safer to pay with a credit card and apple pay/google pay because there is no paper money that could get lost during these contact-free transactions. Another obvious reason as we all know is the way technology has evolved. Major ticketing sites and major league sports began to bring in mobile ticketing in 2012 which allowed you to have your ticket to a game or concert on your phone. Also, with the evolution of apple pay and google pay paying for items got a whole lot easier and secure. 

Many people with an iphone have linked their credit or debit cards to their apple wallet, as shown in the picture above to pay for items at sporting events.

Tropicana Field, the home of MLB's Tampa Bay Rays were the first major league sports team to begin experimenting with cashless concession stands in 2018. It got mixed reviews but they were mostly positive once fans began to realize that a safer system was being implemented. Cashless concessions quickly spread to bigger venues in bigger cities like New York by the end of 2018.

Even though there are many valid reasons to move on from cash there is a case to keep cash around. Even though many Americans carry credit cards you cannot assume everyone has one. The Census Bereau estimated that 183 million Americans own some type of credit card. Even though that is a lot that is no where near close to every person in the United States. You also must take into consideration that not everyone even has a bank account. Aside from people in poverty, look at venue goers who are under 18. There are a lot of fans at this age at games and concerts and they aren't even old enough to own a bank account. 

Clearly going cashless is becoming a norm as it is safer and the more efficient payment option. But even though the popularity of carrying cash around is low you cannot completely eliminate cash transactions because to some it is the only payment option they have.

Related Links:

https://budgeting.thenest.com/percentage-americans-credit-cards-30856.html

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2019/01/25/bucking-the-trend-tropicana-field-to-become-north-americas-first-cashless-venue/