While watching the marathon that was World Series Game 3, I wondered about how the game’s length would affect profitability for the Dodgers. I know, I can’t turn off the business teacher brain even at 2:00 am. We already know that the baseball players don’t get “paid” for post-season play; they get bonuses for doing well. That process is explained in this article: MLB postseason shares, explained.
Adding another 8 innings to a regular game meant that all of the stadium’s workers needed to stay for essentially another game. I assume they are mostly hourly workers, needing to be paid for those extra hours and overtime for long shifts. California has pretty rigid regulations on overtime requirements from what I remember. In a previous life, I worked for a payroll/time and attendance software company. I constantly had to check that our software properly calculated the overtime wages, always triple-checking California. I digress . . . in a regular game, the concession stands typically close in the 7th inning. I wondered if the concession stands would re-open last night to serve the attendees and perhaps recoup some money for the long game’s extra wages being paid out. This tweet confirmed that.
YOU GUYS. They are literally re-opening concessions because this game is going so long. All they have is nachos, coffee and ice cream. #WorldSeries pic.twitter.com/8NZUsTAXEG
— Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) October 27, 2018
I also found this article that confirmed the re-opening of the concession stands: Friday’s marathon Game 3 featured a 14th-inning stretch and reopened concession stands
I doubt the Dodgers will ever release information about the financial impact of the longest game in World Series history but it still makes me wonder about the impact the game had on the organization.
