Though beloved, there are few that would describe baseball as particularly innovative. And yet, as Fort Worth Cats Food and Beverage Director Robbie Fenyes told MPDs CEO Karen Webster in a recent interview, evolving from a “cash only” business was critically important for the health of the team. Check out the conversation on how the Cat’s decision to innovate and “play ball” with plastic created an experience that was better for everyone.
Next week millions of Americans tune in to the World Series to see if Kansas City can close the deal and take home their first World Championship in almost 30 years. The World Series was made for television, but most of baseball was not. Generally America’s pastime is best enjoyed in person, usually in the presence of peanuts, cracker jacks and beer.
And yet at small parks, like LaGrave field, where the Fort Worth Cats baseball club plays, fans of small ball can find themselves in the unhappy position of having their access to concessions a little compromised because they have to rely on cash to pay for their goodies.
Such was the difficulty the Cats Food and Beverage Director Robbie Fenyes found that his customers were having. In a recent sit down with MPD CEO Karen Webster, he explained that though baseball probably isn’t the first place most people’s minds go when they think payments and retail, even small clubs like his are actually very involved in retail operations and think about it a lot.
“It’s a pretty simple framework really, there are three elements of revenue generation within the baseball world. It’s ticket sales, merchandise and concessions and advertising. Those three revenue streams effect a team’s operation.”
A large chunk of team’s success, he explained is managing and maximizing those revenue streams.
“We are always looking at way to make that measures be true and improving on it.”
And yet as a cash only business, they weren’t maximizing revenue—as consumers were turning away from the concessions stand and ticket window, because they just weren’t holding enough greenbacks to make the purchases they might have been able to do otherwise. Now, LeGrave Field has ATMs of course, but Fenyes says the customer feedback was clear—ATMs were much too expensive to access cash to pay for stuff, so rather than cash out, they were, instead, just skipping the purchases.
Webster noted that the main defense of cash, especially for small or niche businesses like a regional baseball team, is that cash is old-fashioned but cheap.
Fenyes noted that though his club is committed to offering very affordable family entertainment, cash is not without costs, even if those costs are monetary and instead are logged in disappointed customer expectations.
“There was a bit of a disappointment when it wasn’t convenient for them anymore.”
Bringing convenience back was Fenyes’ goal, and to do that it was clear that they needed a way to make it feasible to take payments via plastic, either credit or debit.
And so the Cats found PayAnywhere—a tablet based mPOS system that helped the stadium make the jump to electronic payments, without having to re-invent the wheel technologically speaking. Instead, equipped with tablets and mobile phones, and some simple POS software all of sudden it was easy for customers to load-up on nachos and t-shirts, swipe their cards and get back to the game.
Moreover, said Fenyes, the CRM capabilities that came along with their PayAnywhere system, allowed to the park to open a whole new channel to reach out to their customers, to offer more personalized service and to really raise the level of their game, no pun intended.
It’s also left the park eager to explore the next round of improvements, particularly in considering a jump to the wonderful world of mobile.
The amazing thing about putting cards into the hands of the fans, and tablets into the hands of the cashiers, Fenyes says, is that it has translated into consumers looking for more ways to interact with the brand.
And, that’s a beautiful thing, Fenyes said. Fans were coming to the park before to root on their favorite team, says Fenyes, but they’re doing that and spending more now when they do.
“By having the ability to use cards our per capita and per head spend has increased. In fact, it’s almost doubled. That’s an improvement we can see.”
And, he says, is all because of cards.
“We generated 29 or 30 percent for card spend at baseball—that’s a big jump.”
Fenyes says eventually the goal is to see that spend move to a full 50 percent done via card.
The increased revenue and usage is great, but the change to the new card regime supported by PayAnywhere is about more than the payment, it’s about the data as well.
For the first time the team management really has a chance to look at the spending in a comprehensive way and learn what the clients like, what they buy and what keeps them coming back. This helps them not only offer a diversity of payment options, but also an ability to really understand the transactions. At the end of the day, Fenyes says his company is learning new and better ways to reach out to their customer base.
“We can take services to the fans now, we can take the food to them and swipe a card and make it convenient. When we can make it a little more intimate, a little more enjoyable, it’s something fans want.”
Fenyes noted that though the change was scary, and it was hard to move past a historical practice, in the end he believes it was something that was better for both the team and their fans.
Sounds like a homerun!
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