2,300,000
The estimated amount of dollars that downtown Phoenix restaurants and retail outlets will lose if Major League baseball players go on strike a week from tomorrow. That represents an estimated $146,000 for each of the 16 remaining home dates that the Arizona Diamondbacks would fail to play at Bank One Ballpark.
And that's only a fraction of the estimated tens of millions of dollars more that would be lost from game tickets, stadium concessions, parking and hotels. Plus, there would be losses from radio and TV advertising, not to mention the hundreds of millions at stake if the strike lasted into next year's spring training season.
Neither the Diamondbacks, the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, BOB, nor Phoenix officials claim to know either on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis how much total revenue is generated by the ballclub.
Regardless, the hundreds of workers who rely on the play of 25 of the Valley's wealthiest men say they each will lose thousands of dollars if the players walk out.
"If (the players) made what we made, they would see what it's like to try to make ends meet. Some of us are working two or three jobs," said Colleen Malacarne, a middle school band teacher who sells game programs.
Malacarne, who also teaches private music lessons, said that she makes $200 on a good night. Multiply that by 16 home games if the season is lost, and she's out nearly $3,200....
And with the Diamondbacks in command of their division, many were hoping to benefit from a possible World Series repeat. Last year, out-of-state spending during the four World Series home games pumped $32 million into the local economy, and the team reported $7.25 million in concessions and novelties for those games, according to the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The millionaire ballplayers and the billionaire owners will be OK. No one is going to repossess their Mercedes' or tricked-out SUVs. The same can't be said for the schoolteacher selling programs on game nights who probably drive a '96 Ford Escort. Perhaps if the players and owners were made to walk a mile in the shoes of those who depend on them they'd develop a bit of compassion.
Nah....
