{"id":805251,"date":"2020-03-13T21:23:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T03:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=380494"},"modified":"2020-03-13T21:23:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T03:23:09","slug":"no-fans-no-work-arena-workers-caught-in-sports-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/no-fans-no-work-arena-workers-caught-in-sports-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"No fans, no work: Arena workers caught in sports shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Ushers leave empty Hammond Stadium, after a baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles was canceled, Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Fort Myers, Fla. Major League Baseball has suspended the rest of its spring training game schedule because if the coronavirus outbreak. MLB is also delaying the start of its regular season by at least two weeks.<\/strong>
AP Photo\/Elise Amendola<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

MIAMI \u2014 David Edelman can usually be found at a Denver Nuggets basketball game or a Colorado Rapids soccer game. As an usher, he interacts with fans in a role he calls a staple of his life.<\/p>\n

But there are no Nuggets games for at least a month. No Rapids games, either. And Edelman has no idea what he\u2019ll do now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I do for a living,\u201d Edelman said earlier this week, as the realization hit that sports were going on hiatus because of the coronavirus. \u201cThis is my income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thousands of workers would have staffed the 450 NBA and NHL games that will not be played over the next month in response to the pandemic. And then there are the more than 300 spring training and regular-season baseball games, 130 NCAA Division I men\u2019s and women\u2019s tournament games, 50 or so Major League Soccer matches, all international golf and tennis tournaments, and who-knows-how-many high school, small college and other entertainment events canceled or postponed because of the global health crisis.<\/p>\n

The total economic impact of the loss of sports and other events because of the pandemic \u2014 assuming only a month shutdown \u2014 is impossible to calculate but will reach the billions, easily.<\/p>\n

Tickets aren\u2019t being sold, so teams and leagues and organizing bodies lose money. Fans aren\u2019t going to events that aren\u2019t happening, so taxi drivers and ride-share operators have no one to ferry to and from those places. Hotel rooms will be empty. Beers and hot dogs aren\u2019t being sold, so concessionaires and vendors lose money. Wait staff and bartenders aren\u2019t getting tips. Without those tips, their babysitters aren\u2019t getting paid.<\/p>\n

The trickle-down effect sprawls in countless directions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs players, we wanted to do something, along with our ownership and coaches, to help ease the pain during this time,\u201d star guard Stephen Curry said.<\/p>\n

Some teams and top players are trying to help. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, within minutes of the NBA shutdown announcement, said he wanted to find a way to help workers who will lose money because games won\u2019t be played. By Friday, he had his plan: \u201cWe will pay them as if the games happened,\u201d he told The Associated Press in an email.<\/p>\n

The Golden State Warriors\u2019 ownership, players and coaches have pledged to donate $1 million to provide assistance to employees who work games at Chase Center.<\/p>\n

Other teams, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, have made commitments to workers at not just NBA events but also the building\u2019s minor-league hockey games. The Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks were among the earliest NBA franchises to reveal they\u2019re working on how they\u2019ll take care of arena staffs. So have the NHL\u2019s Washington Capitals, among others, and the ownership group for Detroit\u2019s Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers on Friday said they were setting up a $1 million fund \u201cto cover one month\u2019s wages for our part-time staff for games, concerts and events that they would have otherwise worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur teams, our cities and the leagues in which we operate are a family, and we are committed to looking out for one another,\u201d New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris said.<\/p>\n

Cavaliers star Kevin Love pledged $100,000 to help the workers in Cleveland address what he described as their \u201csudden life shift.\u201d On Friday, reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks made a $100,000 pledge on behalf of his family \u2014 and the team said later Friday that fellow Bucks All-Star Khris Middleton also donated $100,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bigger than basketball! And during this tough time I want to help the people that make my life, my family\u2019s lives and my teammates lives easier,\u201d Antetokounmpo wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans said he would \u201ccover the salaries\u201d for workers at the team\u2019s arena for the next 30 days. Blake Griffin of the Detroit Pistons pledged $100,000 for workers there, the San Jose Sharks said part-time arena workers would get paid for all games not played and Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky said he was giving $100,000 to workers in that club\u2019s arena \u2014 a donation matched by his teammates and followed by another pledge from the team\u2019s ownership group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a small way for me to express my support and appreciation for these wonderful people who have been so great to me and my teammates and hopefully we can all join together to relieve some of the stress and hardship caused by this national health crisis,\u201d Williamson wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

The help \u2014 all of it \u2014 will go to good use.<\/p>\n

At Chicago Blackhawks hockey games alone, about 1,500 workers are in or outside the building on event nights: guest services, concessions, parking, security, box office and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe per game payroll is more than $250,000,\u201d said Courtney Greve Hack, a spokeswoman for the United Center.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the NHL norm \u2014 no official numbers are available \u2014 then workers around the league would stand to lose more than $60 million if hockey does not return this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it,\u201d said Chris Lee, who owns a coffee and smoothies franchise in Arizona that draws 70% of its annual revenue sales at spring training and Arizona Coyotes hockey games. \u201cBut this is going to be really tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lee was packing up cups that won\u2019t be used when baseball announced Thursday that spring training was ending about two weeks early. He and his staff \u2014 one full-timer, 14 part-time employees \u2014 aren\u2019t sure what comes next.<\/p>\n

The enormity of the number of people affected stacks up quickly.
The group that owns the Raptors and other pro sports clubs in Toronto, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, says it\u2019s trying to help 4,000 workers in that city. Extrapolate that across other Canadian and U.S. pro sports cities, and those teams could be looking at 100,000 workers feeling some sort of pinch \u2014 not counting the impact at college and other levels.
Some events won\u2019t happen, and it is unclear if workers affected by those cancellations will get any help.<\/p>\n

The NCAA men\u2019s Division I tournament generates about $900 million annually through television and marketing rights alone. In Albany, New York, which was scheduled to host men\u2019s tournament games for the first time in 17 years, organizers estimated the economic loss from the three-day event to be about $3 million.<\/p>\n

Bars and restaurants bought tons of additional stock and perishables to prep for crowds that won\u2019t arrive. It\u2019ll probably take a few years before the NCAA can bring the tournament back to many of the cities slated to host games next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly disheartening. There\u2019s no question about that,\u201d said Mark Bardack, president of public relations and management firm Ed Lewi and Associates, which had worked for more than a year on the planning of the tournament in Albany. \u201cTo have it all disappear, though obviously no one\u2019s fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some arena workers, many not wanting to be identified because of workplace policies about speaking to reporters, said they are living paycheck-to-paycheck. They\u2019re not alone, of course: A study last fall by the American Payroll Association said 74% of workers in the U.S. would \u201cexperience financial difficulty\u201d if their usual payday was delayed by as little as one week.<\/p>\n

In Philadelphia, Rodney Thompson works on commission selling popcorn and beer at 76ers basketball games, Flyers hockey games and Phillies baseball games. They\u2019re all on hold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more I sell, the more I make,\u201d the 56-year-old said. \u201cThe less I sell, the less I make. It would hurt me, financially. I would have no income coming in. \u2026 I make pretty good money. But if there\u2019s no fans, there\u2019s no work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington, AP Sports Writers Tom Withers in Cleveland, David Brandt in Scottsdale, Arizona, Josh Dubow in San Francisco, Stephen Hawkins in Dallas and Dan Gelston in Philadelphia, and Associated Press Writers Matthew Carlson and Tim Cronin in Chicago contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ushers leave empty Hammond Stadium, after a baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles was canceled, Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Fort Myers, Fla. Major League Baseball has suspended the rest of its spring training game schedule because if the coronavirus outbreak. MLB is also delaying the start of its regular season […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-19 06:38:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}