Silence at Camden Yards Has a Cost
BALTIMORE, April 29 (UPI) — The national anthem’s sound waves splashed off of the seats, roared through cavernous concrete tunnels, and whimpered down oddly empty streets Wednesday in the Baltimore Orioles 8-2 victory vs. the Chicago White Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
But perhaps the unmentioned victims of the closed gates are the stadium workers and local businesses that typically cater to baseball fans on game day.
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“It’s not an easy time for anybody no matter what race you are. … The kids are hurting,” Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones told reporters, referencing the protests in Baltimore.
NBC Sports reporter Bill Baer created a GoFundMe account for the hundreds of employees at the ball park who could miss out on up to six days of pay. The account has raised nearly $1,500.
“Due to the protests occurring in Baltimore, Maryland, two baseball games at Camden Yards have been cancelled (April 27-28), one will be closed to the public (April 29), and three have been moved to Tropicana Field in Florida (May 1-3),” Baer wrote.
“As a result, hundreds of employees at Camden Yards will not be required to work and will miss out on anywhere between one and six days of pay. (Note: Employees received two hours’ pay on April 27.) Many of them struggle as is to make ends meet and can’t afford to miss a day of work. Lengthy road trips are tough as well, as they are paid biweekly. This fund is designed to help alleviate some of the financial burden Camden Yards employees will suffer.”
Baer, a sportswriter since 2007, lives in Philadelphia and said he has “no relationship with anyone that works with the Orioles…”
“I am currently waiting to hear back from the Orioles organization to determine the best method with which to distribute the funds raised here,” Baer wrote. “Once that is known, I will provide an update here. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. I can be found on Twitter @Baer_Bill.”
As the Washington Post put it “outside of empty Camden Yards, it’s definitely not business as usual.”
Pickles Pub, the bar across the street from Oriole Park, Slider’s, and Frank & Nic’s, all struggled to gather a crowd.
“I just want things to go back to normal,” a Pickles bartender told the Washington Post. “We’re hoping people come and rally around the community, but who knows.”
Some fans watched from the closed street gates, others watched from the balconies of the Hilton Hotel beyond the left field wall, but only the press box came with a crowd.
The game aired on MASN, CBS Radio’s 105.7 The Fan, and was MLB.TV’s “Free Game” of the day, was blacked out locally. Despite numerous announcements, fans still clamored for tickets at the box office.
The Orioles, who will play this weekend in Tampa instead of Baltimore, will still receive the gate revenue for the series “minus the Ray’s expenses for hosting the games,” according to the Baltimore Sun. The changes mean snatching five home dates from Orioles fans.
“We believe that these decisions are in the best interests of fan safety and the deployment of city resources,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with all those who have been affected by violence in Baltimore, and everyone in our game hopes for peace and the safety of a great American city.”
Yes, an empty ballpark is unprecedented for Major League Baseball (MLB), but in 2012 fans and volunteers were banned from the third round of the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland due to intense weather. In 1989, a college basketball E.C.A.C. North Atlantic Conference tournament game between Siena and Hartford was closed to fans due to a measles outbreak, according to the New York Times.
MLB’s official historian John Thorn told MLB.com that a 19th-century game hosted by the Worcester Worcesters on Sept. 28, 1882 held the previous all-time recorded attendance low of 6.
The Orioles are valued at $1 billion and have a $245 million revenue, according to Forbes. The team also collected $60 million in gate receipts and has a revenue of $62 per fan.
The Orioles rank No. 9 with an average home attendance of 33,288 in the ball park with a capacity of 45,971.
