MLB teams extend beer sales after stadium clock shortens games

PHOENIX (AP) — Thanks to the pitch clock, the action moves faster at Major League Baseball games.

It also means a little less time for the crowd to enjoy an ice-cold beverage.

To combat this time crunch, at least four teams — the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers — have extended alcohol sales through the eighth round this season. Others, like the Miami Marlins and New York Mets, still sit in seventh place, but they haven’t ruled out changes.

“It makes perfect sense to me,” said Tom Lenhardt, sipping on a beer on Tuesday night before the Brewers Diamondbacks game at Chase Field. “Because the games are shorter, you have to adjust them.”

Historically teams have stopped selling alcohol after the seventh.

At least one team, the Baltimore Orioles, actually sold alcohol during the eighth inning, or until 3½ hours after the first pitch, whichever came first.

MLB games have been considerably shorter this season, thanks in large part to a series of rule changes, particularly the new ballpark clock. During the first one-and-a-half weeks of the season, the average playing time was down 31 minuteson track to be the lowest level for the sport since 1984.

The minor leagues played by the court clock last season. At least one minor league general manager — Kevin Mahoney of the Class A Brooklyn Cyclones — said there has been no decline in franchise sales. Even with shorter games.

However, some major league teams felt the need to make adjustments.

Rangers allowed some alcohol sales in Round 8 last season, but they’ll make that option more widely available in 2023. The team said the move to offer in-seat service to everyone — which fans can order on their phones — was made partly as a response. around the clock and potentially shorter game times so fans don’t have to miss out on extended events waiting in lines at franchise stands.

Brewers Chief Commercial Officer Rick Schlesinger confirmed to MLB.com That their team’s move to expand alcohol sales through the eighth was an experiment.

“If it turns out that this is causing a problem or we feel it might cause a problem, we will go back to what we did earlier,” Schlesinger said.

MLB says it does not regulate when teams sell alcohol. Most franchises have used the seventh inning as a cutoff, at least in part to avoid oversupervising customers who can then get in their cars and go home.

But in reality, most teams already had areas around the stadium where fans could get alcohol after the seventh, even if the concession stands stopped fielding. Many of the parks are connected to restaurants or have VIP areas where alcoholic beverages still flow.

“If you stop sales in the seventh inning, the eighth inning or the ninth inning, it doesn’t really affect our position because regardless, we don’t want people to drink alcohol and then come home from the game,” said Erin Payton, regional executive director of Moms Against Drunk Driving. Alcohol.

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AP baseball writers Ronald Bloom, Noah Trister and Stephen Hawkins, and AP sportswriters Dave Campbell, Alanis Thames and Ryan Kreska contributed to this report.

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