Colorado Fans Can Ring Up Concessions on Mobile Phones

University of Colorado football fans can use their cell phones to order food and drink this season at Folsom Field in Boulder, a college town where tech-savvy students already use cell phones to do “everything but wash windows”. In conjunction with Centerplate, its concessionaire, and point-of-sales supplier Quest, Colorado is testing the Mocapay system this fall at about 125 points of sale inside 83-year-old Folsom Field, which seats 53,750. Centerplate also plans to make the technology available for Buffaloes basketball games at Coors Events Center on campus. Rod Stambaugh, an entrepreneur with 16 years of experience in the wireless industry, started Mocapay (an acronym for mobile cash payments) 18 months ago in Boulder. The service is accepted at 250 restaurants, stores and businesses in the area and has 3,000 to 4,000 users.
Consumers join Mocapay for free by going to the company’s Web site, where they create a personal identification number and set up a prepaid account that is linked to their bank account. Buffaloes fans about to make a purchase send a text message to Mocapay, which sends back a four-digit authorization code and the user’s account balance. Centerplate workers push the Mocapay key on the Quest cash register and enter the authorization code and the sale amount, and the system debits the consumer’s account and provides a receipt. The transaction takes a few seconds and is comparable to using a credit card, Rua said. Mocapay makes its money by charging the concessionaire 19 cents per text transaction in addition to levying a one-time $75 activation fee and $10 monthly charges per location, Stambaugh said. Centerplate should benefit from Mocapay by reducing the number of credit card transactions inside the stadium. The food provider pays a 2 percent to 4 percent fee to credit institutions every time someone uses plastic to buy concessions, Rua said. “We pay the 19-cent flat fee to Mocapay regardless of the amount,” he said. “In rough numbers, for any transaction $6 or over, we’re saving money.”