Cash economy: Stadium registers fail for awhile

Mistakes by the Mariners were not confined to the field Friday night in the home opener.

Registers at concessions stands accepting credit cards began failing in the first inning, and by the fifth inning all Safeco Field register electronics were shut down, causing huge lines at the stands and a run on ATMs for cash.

The subcontractor supplying the system, Micros, recommended a system-wide shutdown and reboot, which corrected the problem by the sixth inning, according to Randy Adamack, Mariners vice president for communications.

“No excuses,” he said. “It was a software failure.”

He said the problem has happened before at isolated Safeco stands, but never before has the entire stadium, which was said to be a sellout with 46,026 in attendance, had all its concessions registers fail.

Adamack said reports that ATMs had failed, or had run out of cash, were not true.