This season major-league baseball has enacted some new rules designed to speed up the game. While some people are very happy with the results over the past couple of weeks, there has been one segment of the game that has been totally overlooked and is suffering as a result of the faster games…the concessions.
Baseball is about more than just watching players on the field, it is also about the social activity of fans coming together to celebrate their favorite teams playing a game they love. It is also about the fans, sharing the camaraderie and the food.
The concession stand or how many teams survive when it comes to paying the bills. With the faster games fewer items are sold during a game, causing organizations to lose money. In an effort to help counteract the loss some teams have made the choice to extend the time they allow adult beverages to be sold during the game.
Typically teams stop serving adult beverages to fans in the seventh inning. So far this season four teams — the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers — have extended the time in purchase an adult beverage to the eighth inning. Cutting off alcohol service in the seventh inning has been seen as a safety measure to keep from over serving fans before they got in their cars to drive home.
With the average game, being 30 minutes shorter this season, the Texas Rangers have even extended the in-seat service where fans can order concessions from their seats to alleviate missing significant amounts of the game due to waiting in line.