D-backs will make sure stadium staff are ‘taken care of’ during suspension

With the sports world in the United States essentially being put on pause due to COVID-19, the question has been asked of what will happen to the part-time workers at these stadiums who rely on that job as their primary source of income.

The NBA and NHL suspended their seasons, MLB canceled spring training and pushed their regular season back at least two weeks and the NCAA canceled all winter and spring championships.

That’s a lot of arenas that don’t need staff anymore.

Arizona Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick addressed what his organization will do about that.

“We’re gonna make sure they’re taken care of at the end of the day,” he told Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo Thursday.

“Just like everybody else who is full time, they are part of our family and we owe them the support that they would need to make sure they’re not economically challenged by this.”

There have already been a few gestures made in this regard since the rulings made by the leagues in the past 24 hours.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said that they plan on having a program in place for those workers while Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love donated $100,000 to the workers in the Cavs’ arena.

As far as baseball is concerned, D-backs president and CEO Derrick Hall said Thursday that after the postponement there may be a “quick tune-up” for a week or two as a sort of extended spring training, but they have not yet decided on that plan.

All in all, there is no certainty yet in the situation. Opening Day, scheduled for March 26, is right at the two-week mark. Even in a best-case scenario, that’s not enough time for teams to finish that potential further prep and employees to prepare a stadium for an actual baseball game.

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