Huskers fans have mixed feelings over cashless Memorial Stadium

Husker fans attended the first game of the football season on Saturday with a new cashless Memorial Stadium.

Nebraska Athletics’ decision to move to cashless concessions starting this fall — a change that also includes Memorial Stadium vendors hawking goods in the stands, the sale of programs and chairbacks — drew praise and criticism from fans and vendors.

Riley Clevenger, who has been going to Husker games for 10 years, said she used cash to pay every time prior to Saturday.

“It’s like the fun part, passing the cash back and forth as you’re sitting in the stands…but now it’s like your card and boring.” Clevenger said, adding that the change didn’t affect the time it took to get her food and to the stands.

One hawker, Hudson Haruer, said the time it took to complete transactions were made slower by issues with the stadium’s Wi-Fi.

Haruer said when the internet is slow, he had to wait for the transaction to process, then it has to go offline before proceeding with payment.

“It just makes it slower, because you’ll sit there for three to five minutes just waiting for it to load,” Haruer said.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln alum Tate Kiehng said going cashless is a “great change” and that it made getting food more convenient.

Cadi John Rivera, a stand lead for the concession stands, said the switch streamlined the process for employees behind the counter.

“We’re going through lines amazingly fast, and usually would be packed and wrapped around by now,” Rivera said.

Some fans in the line for chairbacks, however, would disagree.

“It was an easy process to go up to where the seats were, give the man $10, take two seat backs and go to my seat,” said Richard Rodgers, a Lincoln resident since 2019.

This time, Rodgers said he had to wait in a line spanning from the chairback area to the women’s restroom, a problem made worse when people who didn’t realize how long the line was went up to buy chairbacks and slowed the line.

Rodgers said that although it might seem like a good idea, going cashless wouldn’t go well in the long run.

“If it’s your idea, and you want to succeed, then yeah it’s going to be easier, and people will catch on eventually and it’ll all work out,” Rodgers said. “I don’t see that happening.”