When the sports world went dark last month and Major League Baseball, NBA and NHL owners pledged to take care of their game-day staff, the implication was they meant all of them.
The people who park cars. Scan tickets. Sell hot dogs and beer. Pick up trash and clean bathrooms.
The public pronouncements of support for these workers, many of whom live on the edge of sustainability, seemed both magnanimous and uplifting, a recognition that we were all in this together. Game-day workers are "some of the most valuable members of the baseball community," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. Buffalo Sabres owner Kim Pegula likened them to family.
"We had to have great levels of empathy for those people," Washington Capitals and Wizards Ted Leonsis told The Washington Post.
Now, more than a month later, some of those lofty declarations aren’t quite what they seemed.
"We haven’t gotten anything from anybody," said Carmella Boozer, a cashier employed by a third party, Aramark, at Capital One Arena, home to the Capitals and Wizards.
A USA TODAY Sports survey found substantial discrepancies in how tens of thousands of game-day workers are receiving financial assistance from pro teams – and widespread reticence from those teams to disclose details of the plans they have publicly touted.
USA TODAY Sports asked all 91 teams in the NBA, NHL and MLB to provide details of their assistance plans, and 32 responded with figures for how many employees were covered and what the program costs. Of that number, 28 also provided specific details about how the money is being disbursed.
The plans varied in structure, size and the amount of money made available for workers, with financial commitments ranging from "more than $400,000" to $7 million.
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But just 29 teams said their assistance plans included third-party contractors like Boozer, who often work in concessions, cleaning and security but are not on the team or venue's payroll. A handful of others said they had asked their third-party vendors to continue paying the game-day employees, but couldn’t say if that were actually happening.
Nineteen teams declined to answer the survey, did not respond or said they were still figuring out details of their plans.
"I think they have a lot of good PR for the initial commitment that they made, and some of that good PR is well-deserved," said Matt Furshong of UNITE HERE, a union that represents roughly 25,000 concession workers at dozens of professional sports venues.
"(But) the union and our members and I think the public probably saw that initial announcement and thought it was going to be inclusive of all of the people who work at a game. For the most part, that’s proven not to be the case."
Game-day workers are hardly the only employees who have seen their sources of income dry up because of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 26 million people have filed for unemployment since President Donald Trump declared a national emergency March 13.
But it’s the billionaire owners and their teams who made public proclamations of support that they're not necessarily fulfilling. They're still writing checks to the players, many of whom are millionaires, while low-wage workers are left teetering on the financial brink – in some cases simply because their paycheck doesn’t come from the team.
"I don’t think it’s fair," said Ana Reyes, who is employed by Levy restaurant group but has worked at both Citi Field and Nassau Coliseum in New York since 2003. "We’re part of the team. We’re part of the work."
'We're the heart and soul'
A fan will interact with dozens of game-day workers at every event, making them the team’s primary ambassadors. In many cases, they're the only employees with whom fans will have contact.
"We're the heart and soul," said Marvin Spratley, a grill cook at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. "Rain, sleet or snow, we’re there."
According to team and union officials, the number of game-day workers on hand to staff an MLB, NBA or NHL game can range from 400 to well north of 1,000, depending on the size of the venue, crowd capacity and financial standing of the team.
Because few employees work every game, multiple teams told USA TODAY Sports that there are "thousands" of game-day workers who help run their venues over the course of the season. Many are part-time employees who work at multiple venues, depending on the season, or have other jobs.
Boozer, 53, has been at Capital One Arena in Washington for nearly 12 years – pouring beers, heating and salting soft pretzels and manning cash registers for what she estimated as about $100 per game.
When the NBA and NHL suspended their seasons, she was happy to hear that Leonsis, whose net worth is estimated to be $1 billion, had publicly promised to take care of his workers. Leonsis said he would pay all full-time and part-time workers at his company, Monumental Sports and Entertainment, for the Capitals and Wizards games that were canceled – a gesture that would total $1.2 million and cover 850 part-time employees, according to Monica Dixon, the company's Chief Administrative Officer.
But Boozer is employed by Aramark, which was contracted to staff the concession stands at Capital One. When she sought financial help, she was informed by Aramark that the teams had no obligation to pay her.
Now, with neither Monumental nor Aramark providing assistance, Boozer said she's visiting food banks and worries that her car might be repossessed.
"There’s a whole other group of people in there," Boozer explained. "I know you’re taking care of Monumental, but I’m struggling, too."
While many public pledges from teams and owners appeared to be similar on the surface, union leaders say their efforts to pay third-party workers have varied wildly, sometimes even in the same city.
In New York, the Brooklyn Nets worked with local unions to ensure their game-day workers at Barclays Center – including concession workers employed by Levy – would continue to receive their normal pay as part of an assistance plan that will run through the end of May. The team, owned by Joe Tsai, contributed more than $6 million to that effort.
"They did it right away," said James McDougal, who works in guest services at the arena. "They did not hesitate."
At nearby Nassau Coliseum, venue operating group Onexim Sports and Entertainment said it created a fund for hourly workers it directly employs, with an unspecified donation from the New York Islanders. Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello told reporters he was "extremely comfortable" that game-day workers at the venue would be compensated for lost wages.
Instead, concession workers – who, like at Barclays Center, are employed by Levy – say they have received nothing.
"I have to ask for money from my son to pay my bills," said Reyes, who works as a cashier and bartender at Nassau. "In my opinion, they don’t have no respect for employees right now."
Spokespeople for Aramark and Levy declined to answer questions from USA TODAY Sports about how many of their employees at sports venues are going unpaid, or whether they believe it is prudent for teams to help cover those employees’ pay.
Levy said in a statement that COVID-19 has forced the company to make "some truly gut-wrenching decisions," including furloughs, salary adjustments and layoffs. Aramark said it is working closely with teams, unions and government entities "to lessen the impact on our associates."
"We recognize these closures are creating significant personal hardships, especially for our dedicated hourly associates," the company said in a statement.
Union leaders say the Nets' efforts at Barclays Center – and similar assistance programs at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and the United Center in Chicago – show it's not overly burdensome for teams to care for their third-party, game-day workers. This isn't a question of logistics, they argue. Just a matter of will.
Publicly supported to supporting the public
Furshong, deputy director of research at the UNITE HERE union, said he doesn't expect the Aramarks and Levys of the world to pay all of their employees at every closed facility.
But he does believe it's feasible for sports teams to shoulder that burden.
Take the Nets, and their $6 million contribution, as just one example. While $6 million is hardly pocket change, Forbes estimates that the team is worth $2.5 billion. Tsai, its owner, has an estimated personal net worth of $11.1 billion. And The New York Times reported in 2018 that the Barclays Center has benefited from more than $260 million in state and city funding, and $266 million more in property tax exemptions.
While the specific numbers may differ from team to team, that general template – billionaire owners, and arenas built with millions of dollars of public funding – is relatively consistent across the sports landscape.
And that, Furshong argues, creates a certain expectation of responsibility.
"These teams benefit from the sport of the various communities that they are in," Furshong said. "And it’s well within the financial capability of all these teams. Especially given the public investment that many cities have made in these facilities, it seems though the teams could give back."
Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist and professor at Smith College, has done extensive research on the public financing of sports venues and long argued that local economies do not receive a worthwhile return on public dollars they put toward shiny new stadiums. But he says he believes the notion of paying game-day workers is a separate question, one that drifts into ethics.
"Obviously there is some social responsibility. Obviously, apart from the tax breaks involved, you want to take care of your employees," Zimbalist said. "(But) do I think that because of the tax breaks on their stadiums that they should have an indefinite commitment to all of the stadium and arena workers for an indefinite amount of time in the future? No, I don’t think that."
Zimbalist suggested owners are still largely running sports teams as businesses and, despite their overwhelming wealth, some are also dealing with separate financial losses. He mentioned Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, who is also the chairman of Carnival cruise operation company that has been hit hard by COVID-19, as one example.
(A Heat spokesperson said all team and part-time employees, including third-party workers, would be paid through the end of the regular season, while Arison's foundation had designated an additional $1 million for employees or other community needs related to COVID-19.)
Whether the assistance programs offered by owners and teams are generous or meager, that they’re even needed reveals a larger, societal flaw, said Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist and co-chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the University of California-Berkeley.
Public safety nets such as unemployment, health care and retirement benefits are not as wide or robust as they need to be, and a low-wage earner’s ability to survive a financial catastrophe should not be dependent on who his or her employer happens to be.
These inequities threaten to become increasingly glaring if the coronavirus pandemic drags on into the late summer or fall, ending any chance of resuming the NBA and NHL seasons and wiping out a significant chunk, if not all, of the MLB schedule.
"The promise of giving is nice," Allegretto said. "But it’s not a substitute for good policy."
'Everybody's scared'
During an appearance at a finance and tech conference last year, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said hourly workers are "always going to fall behind," worsening what is already a massive gap in income equality.
The lowest-paid hourly workers are often part-time and lack health insurance. Many work multiple jobs to try to make ends meet. One setback can send someone into a financial spiral from which it will take years to recover.
Which makes the fickle promises of some teams all the more devastating.
"Everybody's scared," said Julie Nordman, who manages a concession stand at Oracle Park in San Francisco. "I'm out of work and I have no income coming in whatsoever."
Nordman said she is setting up payment plans with credit card companies. She used her stimulus check to make a car payment and buy food, which she and her husband are trying to make last as long as possible by eating only two meals a day.
On the other side of the country, in West Hempstead, New York, Reyes still has one part-time job, which she said pays about $26,000 a year. But she also estimated that she has about $6,000 per month in bills.
Without her usual shifts at Citi Field and Nassau Coliseum, she's now confronting the reality that she may need to search for another job, even if that job is in the service industry and could expose her to the coronavirus.
"I have to apply to different places to see," said Reyes, who is 51 and has asthma. "It doesn’t matter. I have to."
Aisha Johnson, who works in Aramark’s maintenance department at Citizens Bank Park, said she and her fellow employees are already worried about unemployment benefits running out. Having last worked March 13, she’s been unemployed for six weeks, with no end in sight.
Like all MLB teams, the Phillies established a $1 million fund to assist game-day workers. But they declined to tell USA TODAY Sports how the money is being spent and whether third-party employees will be eligible for it.
Johnson said she hasn’t heard anything from the Phillies. Or Aramark.
"It would be great if someone showed some appreciation, because unemployment for some folks isn’t going to last," Johnson said.
"It’s a great unappreciation, to be honest, that no one has decided to help the small people. It’s the small people that run the great big-league corporation. It’s the small people that run that great, big building."
Follow the reporters on Twitter at @nrarmour, @RachelAxon, @ByBerkowitz and @Tom_Schad.
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