Amaro & Wolever Crushing Local Economy

(originally published June 4, 2014, but still as relevant.)

The ineptitude of Ruben Amaro and Marti Wolever has sent our beloved Philadelphia Phillies to the bottom-feeder echelon of Major League Basesball and they are simultaneously decimating our local economy.  All across the Delaware Valley wallets are lighter, some even empty, because of an inability of the Phillies front-office to put any kind of quality team on the field.

Attendance is down to an average of 30,303 this year.  That’s 13,718 off the 2012 average of 44,021.  To date, the Phillies have played 31 home games.   That means that 425,258 less people have gone to the ballpark compared to this time in 2012.   The residents of Philadelphia are losing out on a fair amount of tax revenue due to this drop in attendance.  A 2014 Fan Cost Index report has the Phillies average ticket price at $37.42.  425,258 less tickets at the average ticket price of $37.42 has already generated $795,657.72 less revenue for the city through Philadelphia’s Amusement Tax, which is 5% of the cost of a ticket.  The Phillies are on pace to generate $2,078,976 less tax dollars due to their dwindling attendance.  That’s a lot of textbooks, if kids still use textbooks.

The Philadelphia Auto Show drew 259K in 2012.  It is estimated that the Auto Show, at that number, added $44M to the local economy, when factoring in food, drink, parking, etc. The Phillies are on pace for 972,000 less in attendance than in 2012.  That would be the equivalent of Philadelphia’s economy losing 3.8 Auto Shows this year.  That would be $162M less out of the economy.  Those numbers are probably conservative because far more drinking, eating, and merchandise sales happen around Phillies games.

The parking lot that I usually park in when I go to the games on my partial season ticket plan regularly had over 260 cars for each game.  Two women collected the money at the gate and issued tickets.  Two guys would direct cars where to park.  Now, they may get thirty cars.  There is one employee, a woman, who does everything in the empty lot.  That’s less money in the lot owners’ hands, but also the loss of three working-class jobs.

I’ve noticed that families still come out to the games.  The baseball game is still an event that the kids want to go to even if the club stinks.  It’s a destination, like an amusement park.  There’s the Phanatic.   What is missing is the large groups of college kids or buddies making a night out of it and consuming large amounts of beer.

I know a woman who works at one of the Brewery Town kiosks.  She helps to support three kids with her part-time job at Citizens Bank Events.  Her tips are down drastically just based on the sheer fact that she’s not selling nearly as much beer as a couple of years ago.

the oI used to see the beer vendors going up and down my aisle, stopping every couple of steps to sell beers to crowds of people.  Now, I watch them go up and down, maybe stopping once or twice.  They usually just stand there yelling “Cold Beer and Water” without much reaction from the thinned out crowds.  Some rows are completely empty in my lower-level section.

A beer distributor that I spoke with said that there are fewer tap handles at the ballpark because they anticipated a drop in attendance.  Fewer tap handles means fewer kiosks and fewer employees.

Sales at Modell’s and local merchandise stores like Shibe Vintage Sports are down as they aren’t selling nearly the same amount of hats, shirts, sweatshirts, etc.

thewaveFew people are trekking out to watch the Phillies games at their local watering holes.  Bar owners, bartenders, and servers are feeling the wrath of Ruben Amaro, Jr. and Marti Wolever.  One successful bar owner I spoke with said that he’s not only seeing a drop in people coming out to watch the game, but he used to get big crowds of people going down to the ballpark that would stop in for pre and post game beverages.  Not so much anymore.

This isn’t a pity article for small-business owners, bartenders, vendors, or anyone else mentioned.  They’ve all had a good run.  This is an article to show the financial impact that the dynamic duo of Amaro and Wolever have had on the local economy, local households, local wallets, and local jobs.  It’s like a sports financial recession from where Gillick had the Phillies to where they are now.  Not only have these two knuckleheads made watching the Phillies almost unbearable, but they’ve also made life a bit more difficult for good, honest, hard-working people.  These people are the innocent collateral damage of a Phillies front-office that is clueless and completely inept.

The proverbial twister of Amaro and Wolever continues to cause wreckage across the Delaware Valley with no end in sight.

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