HOUSTON, TX — The home opener for the Houston Astros brings big changes at the ballpark.
You can spend big bucks at a ball game, and while that has not changed, how you pay at Minute Maid Park is changing.
Transactions at Minute Maid Park will be cashless this season, so don’t forget your credit or debit card.
Baseball fans who don’t carry plastic are not going to be left out thanks to reverse ATMs scattered throughout the facility.
You know how a regular ATM works — You put the card in the machine and get your cash out.
A reverse ATM is just like that, only the other way around.
With these machines, you put in your cash and then the machine spits out an Astros-branded MasterCard. You then use the card to buy food and souvenirs.
So what happens if you put $100 into the reverse ATM but only spend $85 on the card at the ballpark?
“That credit card is useful anywhere, not just Minute Maid Park, but you can use it for anything,” said Marcel Braithwaite, Astros Sr. Vice President of Business Operations.
There is a limit to how much you can put onto the reverse ATM. The cards are capped at $500.
They are at many Major League parks this season and are popping up at venues across the country.
