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Britain’s first sports stadium to introduce a fully-integrated cashless payment system has this week reported a substantial increase in revenues and a substantial fall in queueing times for supporters.

German company payment solution AG installed the first UK cashless payment system into the Ricoh Arena in Coventry at the end of last season.
Now the stadium has reported that half-time queues for supporters at Coventry City Football League fixtures are a thing of the past and that matchday transactions have risen by 17 per cent.

Ricoh Arena Chief Executive Daniel Gidney told the Venue Innovation Day Summit this week: “When I arrived here fans would be waiting over 25 minutes at half time to get served and many simply didn’t bother.

“My personal Everest has been to enable fans to get served quicker at half time. I achieved this goal within just four matches of going cashless.
“But what has been more striking is the added benefit of significantly increased transaction volumes as a consequence of reduced queue times.”

Gidney revealed that the number of transactions completed as a percentage of crowd had risen from 47 per cent to 55 per cent.

payment solution AG supply integrated cashless payment solutions to stadia across Europe including World Cup venues in Germany and Switzerland.

Heinz-Peter Stromsdorfer, payment solution AG sales and marketing director, told delegates at the Summit that the average payment time using cashless payment was just 16 seconds.

And he explained that four customer transactions could be completed in the time it takes to undertake two using cash.

“The results at Coventry mirror those which we have experienced and delivered in our other stadia,” he said.

“Football clubs have wrestled for many years with trying to serve more supporters during limited windows of opportunity at matches. We provide the long-awaited solution.

“We are delighted that English football supporters have clearly adapted to the system and are now totally comfortable using it.

“We passionately believe that this is the way forward for sports stadia throughout the UK.”