Milwaukee Brewers fans will once again be cut off in the seventh inning.
Brewers announced Monday that alcohol sales would cease at the conclusion of the seventh inning of home games, reversing an April decision to extend the sales window through the eighth. The stated reason for the reversal isn't an oversupply of fans – but a slump in game sales of late.
The Brewers were one of five teams, along with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins and texas rangers, to increase alcohol sales this season after the traditional seventh-inning cutoff. The seventh inning policy is not mandated by MLB, but was the norm in most MLB ball parks.
With the newly adopted pitch clock cutting game time by about 26 minutes—and by extending time to sell alcohol—some teams tried to recoup those lost concession sales by extending the window an extra inning. Ask for the way.
Brewers spokesman Tyler Barnes told MLB.com on Monday that eighth-inning alcohol sales did not warrant the extended window. He also said that the team did not see any serious behavioral problems due to the extended sale.
Barnes said, “We have two homestands under our belts and have had no serious issues with the normal behavior related to extended sales.” “But what we found is that we increased it by an average of 15 minutes extra time.
“Because it is late in the game, alcohol sales and all concessions fall off a cliff once we reach the eighth inning. The amount of sales we were experiencing was not significant.”
The initial decision drew criticism that the expanded sale would increase the risk of alcohol-related incidents and encourage fans to run home from the stadium in an inebriated condition. philadelphia phillies pitcher Matt Strahm expressed those concerns in April”.Baseball ain't boring” podcast.
“Cause we stopped [selling alcohol in] The seventh first was to give our fans time to calm down and drive home safely, right?” Strahm said. “So now with the fast paced game — and I'm just a man of common sense — if the game is about to end Quick, don't we move beer sales back into the sixth inning to give our fans time to cool off and hit home runs?
“Instead, we're going into the eighth, and now you're putting our fans and our families at risk, hitting home runs with people who drank beer 22 minutes ago.”
No other team that has increased beer sales has addressed the impact on sales or otherwise since implementing the change.