Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 20, 2019 in preparation for their NCAA March Madness game. | Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Jazz fans ready to greet this season’s team at its pre-season debut with the Adelaide 36ers on Saturday can travel to the game a little bit lighter, thanks to Vivint Smart Home Arena’s just-announced decision to move concessions to cashless-only transactions.
It’s not that your money isn’t welcome there. The arena just prefers plastic.
While a $125 million renovation of Vivint Arena in 2017 included significant upgrades to food and beverage choices at the Jazz’s home venue, operators on Tuesday said they will be phasing out cash as a payment option in an effort to reduce waiting times and keep lines short.
“We are constantly looking for ways to innovate the guest experience and our pilot program this summer has shown that a cash-free environment results in faster moving lines and increased fan satisfaction,” said Jim Olson, president of Vivint Smart Home Arena, in a statement.
“This conversion to cash-free zones will increase the efficiency of arena operations, allowing for a better fan experience.”
The transition will be phased in, according to operators, and five new kiosks will be installed at locations on the main and upper concourses to allow those who only have cash to convert their money, without charge, into a MasterCard debit card that can be used in the venue as well as all other retailers that accept payment cards.
Cash-free transactions will be phased in at all food and beverage points of purchase by the spring of 2020.
“We believe our fans will appreciate and adapt quickly to the cash-free concession stands, and there will be plenty of signage in the arena to indicate the payment options,” Olson said. “Whether it is a game, concert or show, our intent is for guests to enjoy their dining experience and not miss any of the entertainment.”
While prices for chow and drinks at many sports venues have skyrocketed across the country, and data reflects U.S. fans spend on average of over $40 per person at an event, research shows Americans are increasingly less reliant on greenbacks.
A Pew Research Center report released last December found U.S. adults are moving away from cash, but it’s a trend more pronounced among younger, wealthier and whiter Americans.
Pew reported roughly 3 in 10 U.S. adults (29%) say they make no purchases using cash during a typical week, up slightly from 24% in 2015. And the share who say that all or almost all of their weekly purchases are made using cash has modestly decreased, from 24% in 2015 to 18% today.
But those making $75,000 or more annually were more than twice as likely as those earning less than $30,000 a year to say they do not make any purchases using cash in a typical week.
Also, according to the report, blacks are more likely than whites or Hispanics to rely on cash: 34% use cash for all or almost all of their purchases, compared with 15% of whites and 17% of Hispanics. And 34% of adults under the age of 50 make no purchases in a typical week using cash, compared with 23% of those ages 50 and older.
Vivint Arena joins a growing number of big event and sports venues to make the move to cashless, which include Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Tropicana Field in Tampa and the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Some other retailers, however, have had less than stellar experiments with compelling cashless shopping experiences.
Forbes reported last month that Amazon’s foray into cashless transactions at its Amazon Go convenience stores was walked back not long after the attempt and fast-casual restaurant chain Sweetgreen folded on its no-cash model last spring after two years of refusing to accept physical money.
The Forbes story also notes that New Jersey and Philadelphia have passed legislation that disallows cash bans and cities like New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. are considering following suit.
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