Football is a contact sport, but a growing number of National Football League stadiums' concession stands are going contactless as they seek to get fans back into their seats faster.
When the National Football League's 17-week regular season kicked off Sept. 7, nine of the 32 NFL stadiums were accepting contactless cards for purchases. Seven teams accepted them in 2005. The Arizona Cardinals and Chicago Bears began accepting contactless cards this season.
Other teams accepting contactless cards are the Seattle Seahawks, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, New York Giants, New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions.
Like the NFL, Major League Baseball teams similarly are embracing contactless payments ("Baseball Takes a Swing at Contactless Payments," April).
Payment terminals at the NFL teams' stadiums accept contactless payments processed through the Visa, MasterCard and American Express networks. MasterCard uses PayPass and AmEx ExpressPay as contactless product names. Visa lets member issuers name their own contactless products.
In the NFL, PayPass has the home-field advantage, as all of the teams accepting contactless payments have marketing agreements with MasterCard.
"Our terminals accept all contactless payments, but because MasterCard is one of our sponsors, we push PayPass," says Mike Iaquinta, the Cardinals' manager of business development.
Visa has been the overall official sponsor of the NFL since 1995, but MasterCard has individual sponsorship agreements with 22 teams. Visa has individual sponsorship agreements with seven teams, including the New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers. None accepts contactless cards.
By getting local teams to accept PayPass, MasterCard hopes to generate interest in contactless payments throughout the teams' local markets. Cathleen Conforti, MasterCard senior vice president, claims that when she used her PayPass card last season at a Giants game, fans behind her said, "Whoa, wait a minute. What is that card, and where did you get it?"
At the Giants' season home opener against the Indianapolis Colts Sept. 10, MasterCard handed out free PayPass wristbands to the first 5,000 fans. The wristbands, which featured the Giants' blue and red team colors, were preloaded with $25. Fans could use them to buy food at Giants Stadium or anywhere else PayPass is accepted. MasterCard limited the preloaded amount to $25, emphasizing to users that they do not have to sign a receipt if the purchase is $25 or less.
At other games, MasterCard broadcast radio commercials that emphasized the speed in which PayPass handles transactions to encourage the card's usage.
Conforti claims a PayPass transaction can be completed much faster than a payment made with cash or a regular credit card. "It's 26 seconds faster than a swiped credit card transaction, and 33.7 seconds faster than cash," says Conforti, adding that merchants report reductions in the time people have to stand in line when PayPass is used.
Other than getting football fans back to their seats faster, MasterCard says PayPass fills another need.
Conforti cites an Aite Group study that found that 60% of consumers carry less than $20 and that nearly 50% carry less cash than they did five years ago. Moreover, 75% of consumers believe there's no need to carry large amounts of cash, the study found.
At the Ravens' M&T Bank Stadium, PayPass helped expand credit card acceptance, says Kevin Rochlitz, the Ravens' director of corporate sales. Before PayPass, the Ravens only accepted credit cards in the stadium's club level for liquor but not food. The stadium now accepts PayPass at 375 food and beverage locations, and Rochlitz says the team has seen a $5 increase in average individual ticket sales at those sites, an improvement he attributes to PayPass.
STRATEGIES DIFFER
Visa is holding discussions with the teams with which it has individual sponsorship agreements, but Visa's strategy is different from MasterCard's, says Brian Triplett, Visa senior vice president of emerging products. "Our biggest value is to get everyday use out of contactless cards instead of occasional use at a stadium," Triplett says, noting there are 6 million contactless Visa cards accepted at 30,000 U.S. merchant locations, including McDonald's restaurants and 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Celent LLC, the Boston-based consultancy, said in a recent report "Contactless and the Dawn of a New Payment Era" there are 13 million contactless devices, most them cards, in the U.S.
MBNA, now owned by Bank of America and a Visa and MasterCard issuer, has affinity card-issuing agreements with all 32 teams. MBNA, for example, issues the Baltimore Ravens Extra Points Platinum MasterCard PayPass card, Rochlitz says.
MBNA also issues the Cardinals Extra Points MasterCard. Cardinal officials say they plan to replace the magnetic-stripe credit card with a PayPass card when outstanding cards expire.
The Cardinals, which opened a new stadium this year, contend acceptance of PayPass is in keeping with the stadium being technologically advanced. The stadium, located in Glendale, Ariz., a Phoenix suburb, has a retractable roof. The field also slides under the stands, making it usable year round. Cardinals Stadium accepts PayPass at the stadium's 313 food-concession stands and 32 souvenir merchandise locations.
Before moving into their new home, the Cardinals did not accept credit cards when the team played its home games at Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe.
MBNA's relationship with the teams gives the issuer the right to acquire new cardholders in the teams' stadiums. M&T Stadium has six kiosks where MBNA can sign up new cardholders.
More NFL teams are accepting PayPass cards at their stadiums' vendor locations. Just as rules on the field are designed to speed up the games, the teams want to speed up the time fans are in concession stands inside so they can see more of the action taking place outside.
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