As MLB Games Shorten, Marketing Of Mobile Ordering And Batting Practice Needs To Happen

It always seems to be the unintended consequences of major change that has to happen. Whether it’s Elon Musk’s botched initial rollout of Twitter Blue or inflation rapidly increasing due to policies enacted to help get the economy out of the doldrums with the pandemic, something unforeseen can come along.

So, too, is the case for Major League Baseball.

The rule changes – pitch clock, increased base sizes, and banning of radical shifts – have been a boon to the league. Action has increased. Steal attempts are up. Balls are being hit into play more frequently, making for more hits and runs, all under quickened pace and shortened game times.

The downside has been on revenues from concessions.

The Commissioner’s Office doesn’t control when the cutoff is for beer sales leaving that decision to the discretion of the 30 clubs. The White Sox stop sales after the 7th inning. The Orioles sell through the 8th inning or 3.5 hours, whichever comes first (with the pitch clock, 3.5 hours 9 inning games will be extremely rare and without rain delays, a game going 3.5 hours into the 8th is now extinct). The Cubs have had a standing rule of ending sales after the 7th or 10:30pm for night games and after the 8th for day games.

The Milwaukee Brewers announced that they would extend beer sales until after the 8th after games started running shorter. Brewers President of business operations Rick Schlesinger said it was an experiment.

“This is [reflective] of the fact that the games are shorter. From a time perspective, we’re probably looking at selling beer for the same amount of time by extending to the eighth inning that we did last year through the seventh,” Schlesinger said to MLB.com. “Obviously, the safety and the conduct of our fans has primacy. We’ve had no issues, but it’s a small sample size and we’re going to continue to test it and see if it makes sense. I know a number of other teams are doing the same thing.”

The Brewers aren’t the only ones. The Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, and Minnesota Twins have also extended to the end of the 8th inning.

The move to extend beer sales has been cause for concern from at least one player in the league. Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm talked about it on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast.

“The reason we stop in the seventh before was to give out fans time to sober up and drive home safe, correct?” Strahm said. “So now with a faster-pace game and me just being a man of common sense. If the game is going to finish quicker, would we not move the beer sales back to the sixth inning to give our fans time to sober up and drive home?”

Clubs will want to be able to maintain concession sales with shorter games. The risk of drunk fans increasing by extending sales is a concern. How to allow for increased sales without needing to extend the sales window? Marketing.

Instead of extending sales, clubs should increase marketing of mobile sales. This shortens the time fans stand in line for concessions. It has the added bonus of allowing fans to stay in their seats longer to enjoy the actions, and clubs get demographic and sales data from consumers.

Some clubs have also started pushing marketing to encourage fans to attend batting practice before the games which allows additional concessions revenue.

As an example, the Seattle Mariners conduct BP hit 2 hours and 35 minutes before game time for one hour. Visitors hit 1 hour and 35 minutes before game time for 45 minutes. Batting practice is typically not held on Sundays or day games. The club has started promoting fans going to BP as part of their ROOT Sports Northwest broadcasts.

Clubs should double efforts to get fans to the ballpark earlier through promotions and market heavily on fans using mobile ordering. Both these efforts should allow revenues to remain flat or increase compared to 2022 without the dangers of fans overconsuming alcohol with little time for it to wear off with extended sales moving to less than 30 minutes before games end. It’s good business and avoids potential catastrophes.