Baseball Strike Would Cost the City a Bundle

There is a cliche that “the fans will be the real losers” if major league baseball players strike Tuesday. Actually, all San Diego taxpayers--even those who don’t know Goose Gossage from goosefeathers--will suffer in the event of a walkout.

Stadium officials Thursday released a report estimating the economic impact of a baseball strike. The picture is as grim as the Padres’ recent record.

Assuming the strike lasts the duration of the season, stadium revenue will suffer to the tune of about $1 million, or $36,000 for each home game canceled, based on an average attendance of 37,000 per game.

In the event of a strike, Bill Wilson, general manager of the stadium, said, “Efforts would need to be taken to offset the . . . revenue loss.”

It would be up to the City Council and the Stadium Authority to decide whether the $1-million shortage would be made up by scheduling additional events in the stadium during August and September or by cutting the stadium’s budget.

But there would be no savings on stadium maintenance--the approximately $7,000 it costs to prepare the field, light the stadium and clean up the post-game mess--because that is paid by the Padres. There would, however, be a slight savings in the San Diego Police Department’s budget because extra officers typically are on duty for Padre games.

Wilson’s report also touched on the effect a strike would have on the area’s job market. In all, 1,045 employees of firms providing security, concessions, parking and maintenance would be at least temporarily out of work, representing a payroll of $47,300 per game. His report did not take into account the hotel and other tourist revenues that would be lost.

Service America Corp., which operates the stadium concessions, employs 700 people per game. Triple L Enterprises, which provides security, employs 230; Ace parking has 40 workers on duty, and Pedus Building Services Inc., which helps maintain the stadium, has a work crew of 75.

Those workers, Wilson said, “will no longer be employed” in the event of a strike.

While the Padres have slipped in the standings in recent weeks, they are drawing more fans than ever before and have been a boon to the city treasury. The city had drafted the stadium budget based on an average attendance of 32,000, so the extra 5,000 per game would represent a tidy financial surplus at the end of the year--barring a strike.