How many fans will be around to watch when they return? That remains to be seen. MLB’s owners and players probably have around three months to come to an agreement before the regular season is affected. The sport’s labor issues - on top of the D-backs’ recent struggles - make him wonder if it’s worth the money and trouble.įor now, there’s not much for fans to do but wait and hope. Now - because of the lockout - there’s a chance this season will be affected, too. He still didn’t feel comfortable attending games because of the pandemic so he rolled them again to 2022. Pupo didn’t get to attend Diamondbacks games in 2020 due to COVID-19 so he rolled his season tickets to 2021. The marginalized fan, there’s too many other things, too many other sports that draw them away,” he said. It’s a golden age of baseball, and no one cares.” “And I think we have some of the greatest players ever playing now - Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw and more.
“I understand collective bargaining and unions,” he said. His friend, 60-year-old Paul Weinstein of Queens, said he grew up playing baseball “seven days a week, 12 hours a day.”īut at this point, he said, “I think we’re beaten down.” “It’s going to turn people off,” said 63-year-old Joe Cannizzo of Brooklyn, a self-described “lifelong Yankee fan, a lifelong baseball fan” who was wearing a Curtis Granderson T-shirt.
The topic was on people’s minds after a softball game on an artificial turf field in Manhattan near the Hudson River. Last season was better, but crowd capacity limits were still in place in many locations. The 2020 regular season was drastically shortened and played in parks with no fans. Largely thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not the best of times. It’s unlikely the ticket-buying public will be very sympathetic to public bickering between the owners and players.Įven in the best of times, fans want their baseball and it was clear in the aftermath of the 1994-95 strike that fans were slow to forgive. the players with a notable third party warily watching: the fans. MLB’s labor showdown pits the league’s owners vs. “The question is, what’s the middle ground?” “The players feel like they need a bigger slice of the pie and I don’t blame them. “I think ownership is entitled to make a profit,” Pupo said.
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But it’s unclear if that game or any others will be happening this spring now that the sport has entered its first work stoppage in 26 years.īill Pupo - a longtime baseball fan and Diamondbacks season-ticket holder - said he’s hopeful of a quick resolution, but also acknowledges the current labor squabble has the feel of the 1994-95 strike that lasted 7 1/2 months and wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years. That’s the day the 2022 MLB season is scheduled to begin and Chase Field’s downtown concourse should be bustling with fans, ready to start the 162-game schedule with a day game against the Milwaukee Brewers.