The Red Bull Arena, home of the Austrian Bundesliga football club Red Bull Salzburg, announced it has become cashless with the start of the upcoming 2019-20 season in July. In addition, the club is making efforts with regards to sustainability by implementing a reusable cup system.
The reigning Bundesliga champion has roped in financial services company Mastercard for its cashless initiative. The club said payments in the 32,000-seat stadium will be accepted via debit and credit cards, with the exception of Diners Club and American Express, along with smartphones and smartwatches.
“We see ourselves as an innovative club and therefore take the step in the direction of public catering and customer service in the direction of cashless payment. We are especially pleased to introduce Mastercard as our new partner. With Mastercard at our side, we can draw on a lot of know-how and many years of experience in this area and thus offer our fans in the Red Bull Arena an even better stadium experience and, above all, faster processing at the kiosks,” Salzburg CEO Stephan Reiter said in a statement.
Fans will also be able to buy prepaid Mastercard cards worth €20 for use in the stadium. Salzburg’s fellow Bundesliga club Austria Wien has already gone cashless, with the system already became fully operational at Red Bull Arena during the friendly match against English Premier League team Chelsea on July 31.
“We see it as our mission to provide customers with ideal, secure and easy payment options wherever they are needed – whether online or offline in supermarkets, at festivals or in sports facilities,” Christian Schicker of Mastercard Austria said in a statement.
In addition, Salzburg has enhanced its sustainability efforts by ending the use of single-use plastic cups. Instead, fans will be asked to pay a €2 deposit for cups which will be returned via the same cashless methods employed at the stadium. For certain matches, fans will have the option to donate the deposit to charitable causes.
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