Update, April 24, 2023: Citing shorter games resulting from Major League Baseball (MLB)’s debut of the pitch clock this year, some teams have extended beer sales: the Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, and Minnesota Twins. All now sell beer through the eighth inning. MLB clubs have traditionally suspended alcohol sales after the seventh inning to curtail drunk driving and encourage public safety. Teams are mostly downplaying the change, referring to it either as an “experimental” policy or emphasizing that it’s not far out of line with prior alcohol sales guidelines.
According to the New York Times, MLB games are on average about 30 minutes shorter this year.
“We are trying this on an experimental basis and it’s too early in the season to comment on it further,” Leslie Stachowiak, senior director of business communications for the Brewers, wrote via email.
Stachowiak referred to statements that Brewers director of business operations Rick Schlesinger made to MLB.com, in which he said: “This is [reflective] of the fact that the games are shorter. From a time perspective, we're probably looking at selling beer for the same amount of time by extending to the eighth inning that we did last year through the seventh.” He further noted that public safety is the team’s highest priority and so far the ballpark has noticed no problems as a result of the change.
At the Rangers’ Globe Life Field, the changes have been subtle. Prior to this season:
Alcohol sales at concession stands were suspended at the end of the eighth inning or 2.5 hours after first pitch—whichever occurred first (or at management’s discretion).
In the stands, vendors concluded beer sales at the end of seventh inning.
If fans in premium seating ordered in-seat food and beverage service on the MLB Ballpark app, they could still be served alcohol until the end of the eighth inning.
Now, Rangers and concession partner Delaware North have increased in-seat service to the entire stadium and made alcohol cut-off at concession stands and in seats at the end of the eighth inning or 2.5 hours after first pitch, whichever comes first.
“The move to offer in-seat service to everyone was done partly in reaction to the pitch clock and the potential of shorter game times so fans would not have to miss extended action while at a concession outlet,” John Blake, executive vice president of public affairs for the Rangers, wrote via email.
Blake emphasized that the safety of all guests is a priority no matter the length of the game. The team and its concessionaire also operate R.A.P.P. (Responsible Alcohol Policy Patrol), a team of staff that roams the ballpark to check identification for fans drinking alcohol, coach alcohol-serving employees, and assist guests who appear intoxicated. The team also added a new rideshare location for this season that makes rideshare services easier for fans to access.
The original story follows.
THE GIST
Shorter games, fewer beers sold. One doesn’t have to be a sabermetrician to arrive at the basic assumption that a new pitch clock at Major League Baseball (MLB) games could translate to lower beer sales at ballparks. By increasing the pace of play, the timers are expected to cut off an average of around 25 minutes per game this season. What’s unknown is whether those shorter games mean fewer trips to concession stands or fewer chances to hail a vendor wandering the aisles selling cans of beer.
As the regular season opened March 30, teams and their partners don’t seem worried about the potential loss. Instead, some argue that by creating a faster-moving, more engaging viewing experience for baseball fans, MLB is betting that more fans will want to watch games and in turn ensure that concession sales stay high because of more butts in seats.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see food and beverage sales actually go up a small amount because people are having a more enjoyable experience at the park, and when you’re having a more enjoyable experience, you’ll buy more food and drink,” says Sean O’Keefe, CEO and co-founder of Pontoon Brewing in Sandy Springs, Georgia.
O’Keefe has a background in finance and statistics, and is a self-described “huge baseball nerd” who contributed to the baseball analytics publication FanGraphs by creating an algorithm related to player injuries. He was also previously a staff accountant for Bridgestone Arena, home of the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators, where he worked with event staff to generate more revenue.
O’Keefe sees the pitch clock as good for baseball, and also good for beer brands associated with teams. This season, Pontoon will debut its Boathouse brewpub in Coolray Field, home of the Gwinnett Stripers, a Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Triple-A teams have had a strictly enforced pitch clock since last season, which reduced the average game time from 3 hours, 4 minutes in 2021 to 2 hours, 26 minutes in 2022, according to MLB data.
“The pitch clock has been lowering the game time, which is making people more interested in the sport, which is something the MLB has been struggling with,” O’Keefe says. “That’s something for craft beer to be thinking about, getting these younger generations into the game and our beer.”
WHY IT MATTERS
Hope springs eternal for baseball fans when the sport returns each year, but MLB and its teams also need rose-colored glasses to envision a scenario in which food and drink sales stay high despite less time at the ballpark by fans. If more people are needed in stadiums to offset faster games, baseball will need to first reverse a years-long trend of declining attendance:
Pre-pandemic (2015-2019), the total number of fans at major league games over the course of a season declined -7.2%.
Last year's regular season ticket sales (64.5 million people) were the lowest since 2003 (67.7 million).
In 2022, its first season "post" the COVID pandemic, attendance was -5.8% from the previous 2019 low.
It’s not just shorter games that threaten beer sales, but fewer people buying drinks in the first place. MLB concessionaires sell millions of dollars worth of beer per season, with estimates of gross revenue ranging between $2-$8 million per stadium. If games are on average 14% shorter this season, that translates to a loss of $280,000-$1.1 million for each stadium over the course of a season. Rising prices due to inflation can only cover so much of a difference if beer sales volumes decline in lockstep with attendance or at least less time fans are able to make purchases because of the pace of play.
Teams and concessionaires share profits, and those models vary based on contracts between individual teams, arenas, and concessionaires. Beer companies, meanwhile, sell their beer to stadiums through the traditional distribution system, making each ballpark like any other retail account for a brewery—only much larger than a typical bar or restaurant. For many craft breweries with outposts in major sports stadiums, such as Wiseacre Brewing’s branded bar in FedEx Forum where the National Basketball Association’s Memphis Grizzlies play, those locations are their largest retail accounts.
Minor League Baseball offers at least some vision of what’s ahead in the pitch clock era. Some teams implemented the 20-second counter in 2015, and games saw an average decline of 12 minutes, although that time ticked up again a bit after the first year, USA Today reports. (The pitch clock was fully adopted by Double-A and Triple-A teams last year.) Evidence from the Tacoma Rainiers, a Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, indicates that beer sales didn’t suffer greatly as the pace of play sped up. Paul Braverman, director of media relations for the Tacoma Rainiers, says there was no change in beer or concession sales after the pitch clock was instated.
“Pace of play is just another factor that once in a while is going to be a factor like any other,” Braverman says. While unusually short games happen occasionally, so do unusually long games. For a minor league team like the Rainiers, other variables—including weather, day of the week, and other professional sports teams’ schedules—are much more important to Rainiers’ attendance and concession sales.
In fact, Braverman says the actual length of a game doesn’t matter much to the typical minor league baseball game attendee. He says most fans who visit Cheney Stadium to see a Rainiers game have already decided how long they’ll stay, whether it’s 90 minutes or two-and-a-half hours—a sentiment other minor league teams echo.
“Season ticket holders, die-hard fans, people guaranteed to stay for all nine innings … they care if the team wins or loses. To be frank, that is just a portion of our [attendance],” he says.
Most people attend minor league games casually in a group, and likely already have not only their departure time preplanned, but may have an idea of how many beers they’ll consume, too. These games are family entertainment, and families often pre-plan their visits to the ballpark around how much time they want to spend there, not how long the game lasts. Baseball America found similar results when it heard from more than a dozen minor league teams: The pitch clock had no effect on teams’ food and beverage sales.
“We did not see a negative effect on concession sales. People still eat and drink as much as they used to. The seventh to ninth innings of a 3 hour, 30 minute game are not high concession sales,” one team told Baseball America.
This may be where minor and major league baseball differ, however.
Minor league games are typically family-friendly affairs with goofy between-innings entertainment and themed nights, while major league games can be an opportunity for more rabid fanaticism and greater beer consumption.
A pitch clock might not impact beer sales much if the bulk of minor league game attendees are parents there with their kids’ Little League teams, but it could cut into profits if major league fans are cut off from the beer line 25 minutes early.
Dustin Morse, vice president of communications for the Minnesota Twins, says the team and its concession partners are keeping an eye on how the pitch clock might influence food and beverage sales this season. He says the pitch clock’s effect on a Twins-Red Sox spring training game he attended surprised him; “it goes by pretty fast.” According to The Athletic’s MLB Digest newsletter, the average Opening Day game this year lasted 2 hours, 45 minutes, compared to last season’s 3 hour, 16 minute average.
Shorter games are not the only concern; pace of play is a factor. Slow moments in a baseball game are opportune times for fans to run to the concession stand or flag down a beer vendor without missing key plays. If players can no longer take long pauses to shake off a foul ball or adjust gloves, fans might feel a similar time crunch and opt not to fumble for their wallets or hustle back-and-forth from seat to concession stand for a beer and a hot dog. As retired Chicago beer vendor Lloyd Rutzky told Eater Chicago, fans would wave him away during tense moments late in a close game because they wouldn’t want to miss an important play.
Yet the consensus among teams and some analysts is that these brisker games are exactly what baseball needs to survive long-term. The National Football League and National Basketball Association are more popular and financially successful than MLB, something of which baseball is acutely aware.
“If we look at the business appeal of baseball, it’s hurt by the pace of the game; it’s hurt by the fact that hitting the ball is less of a factor compared to striking out or walking,” Stephen A. Greyser, professor emeritus of business administration at Harvard Business School and a pioneer in the academic study of sports business, told The Harvard Gazette last year. “The pitch clock will help.”
If some stadiums lose out on a bit of beer revenue as fans adjust to the new pace of play and shorter games, that could ultimately be worth it if it helps baseball stay relevant to new generations—who will eventually turn 21 and want to enjoy beers at the ballpark.
“If more people like baseball more, if more kids are introduced to the game, if this better entertainment leads to new fans, how much better is the whole business getting?” Braverman says. “Beer and concession sales, I bet it all comes out in the wash.”
Words by Kate Bernot