Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Ballpark Vending Policies Throw Fans, Workers a Curve
Neil deMause's Field of Schemes site alerted me to this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sportservice, which has concession rights at San Diego's Petco Park, Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark and other venues, is increasingly replacing ballpark vendor employees with volunteers recruited from local charities:
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Neil deMause's Field of Schemes site alerted me to this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sportservice, which has concession rights at San Diego's Petco Park, Cincinnati's Great American Ballpark and other venues, is increasingly replacing ballpark vendor employees with volunteers recruited from local charities:
For routine counter work and everyday ballpark fare, however, the company is aggressively recruiting local charities and nonprofit groups to perform jobs normally done by part-time seasonal employees, with the groups getting a share of the revenue. About one in five Petco Park concession workers are volunteers from churches, scout troops, cheerleading squads and other clubs.Fans aren't happy: concession lines are longer because the volunteers take longer to do everything. The local health department casts a skeptical eye: the volunteers don't have the same training in the requirements of commercial food preparation. Blue-collar workers are furious: the volunteers are taking jobs that they would otherwise use to supplement their income. And the practice makes a mockery of the job-creation promises so often used to justify public funding of stadiums.
Groups are told they can rack up $110,000 per season. But to earn that much, an organization would have to staff a stand for at least 60 games and sell $1 million worth of beer, pretzels and other snacks. Each game is a six-hour commitment and each group must provide its own insurance.
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