Business Losses Feared : Strike Will Affect Many Off the Field

The City of Anaheim will lose $340,000 in revenue for each game not played at Anaheim Stadium because of the NFL players’ strike--about as much as it costs to pay five good quarterbacks for one week’s work.

Add to that the plight of more than 600 part-time concessionaires who won’t report to work at the stadium on Sunday because the Rams-Bengals game has been canceled.

Similarly, 55 Anaheim police officers won’t work their normal five hours of overtime Sunday because of the canceled game. And of course, they won’t collect their estimated $27.50 per hour overtime pay.

The NFL players’ strike, announced early Tuesday, already has resulted in team owners canceling this weekend’s scheduled games. However, owners say they intend to resume league play on Oct. 4 using non-union players. Whether the non-union games will continue and for how long is unknown.

But for every week games are canceled, there will be economic effects beyond players’ salaries and teams’ profits.

Just how much the economic pinch will hurt seems to depend on who is being pinched.

“Most of those officers will probably welcome the break,” Police Capt. Martin Mitchell said. “Most have to be ordered to do it (work overtime). There is so much overtime . . . we just don’t have that many who volunteer.”

The Anaheim Stadium workers are primarily teen-agers, senior citizens or others with full-time jobs who supplement their income selling peanuts and pennants, said Bill Turner, general manager for the city-owned and -operated stadium.

“They are typically people who don’t rely on this income as their No. 1 income,” he said. “They are the ushers, the parking lot attendants, cashiers and food service personnel.”

But one of those part-timers, Kerri Hardin, 19, said a lengthy strike cutting off income from her job managing a stadium ice cream parlor would prevent her from giving Christmas presents to her younger brothers.

The Cal State Fullerton student, who takes home about $50 from each Rams and California Angels baseball game she works, has missed several games this year because of conflicting duties representing her home town as Miss Diamond Bar. A strike might make it difficult for her to come up with tuition money, about $500 a semester, and car payments, she said.

‘Definitely Hurt’

And Christy Gullikson, a 16-year-old Garden Grove High School junior who works on commission selling popcorn, pretzels and candy, said Tuesday that the strike “will definitely hurt me.

“I’m a student and this is my only job and I’m saving the money for a car and also for college expenses,” she said. “So I hope it doesn’t come to the point where I have to look for something else.”

George Kantar, a lobby director who was taking tickets for Tuesday night’s Angels game, has worked at the stadium since 1979.

“Right now we don’t know if we would work if they gather a team (of non-union players) to play,” said Kantar, a part-time employee who also works for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office as a legal assistant. “But one way or the other, I’m not going to be hurt that much by the strike. I’m mainly out here because I enjoy it.”

But beyond the stadium’s walls, the second NFL players’ strike in five years is expected to send ripples, not waves, through the local economy.

“There are not a lot of hotel rooms filled, for example, due to Rams games,” said Sheri Erlewine, public information officer for the City of Anaheim. “We do get some visitors from the visiting team’s area, but not enough to be a significant impact.”

$5 to $190 for Parking

Some businesses along State College Boulevard rent spaces in their parking lots to football fans who don’t want to fight the congestion of the stadium lot, she said. But at $5 to $10 per car and only “a few hundred” spaces available, it isn’t a major enterprise.

For other businesses, the pinch will be felt a little more sharply.

Gary Parkinson, general manager of the Catch restaurant and bar across the street from the stadium on State College Boulevard, estimates a $25,000 loss in business with each canceled game.

About 1,000 customers patronize the restaurant and bar before the game and another 1,000 after, Parkinson said.

“We haven’t estimated what the fall-off is going to be . . . but it will probably be dramatic,” he said.

The decline in business will also have a significant effect on his staff, he said. The Catch employs 50 to 60 workers on a routine Sunday game day. But this week, Parkinson said, he will probably have only eight to 10 people rather than the full complement for Sunday brunch.

“If the strike lasts all season, there will be people without a job,” Parkinson said.

“Most of the fans I’ve talked to say they are not going to see the B-teams play,” he said of the substitute teams of non-union players. “There’s a lot of quality entertainment and other attractions, and they don’t need minor league football.”

But farther south John Dempsey, Irvine Marriott hotel resident manager, doesn’t foresee a bad business slump at his establishment, where a well-advertised Sunday brunch sometimes attracts football fans.

“The Anaheim Marriott will feel a little bit of it, but that’s only because the visiting teams that play the Rams usually stay there,” he said.

At Players Restaurant, on Von Karman Avenue near John Wayne Airport, Monday nights are usually jam-packed with sports fans watching several large color television sets. But Monday night’s crowd was unusually sparse, said restaurant manager Frank Licata.

Already in Mourning

“Last night’s crowd was minuscule,” Licata said. “I think they’re beginning to mourn (the) football strike. The week before was more typical. People started to get in here early about 4 p.m. to get a good place. By game time, the place was very crowded.”

As for next Monday, Licata vowed to show the Monday night football game, with either strike-breakers or regular players.

“I don’t care if they’re scabs or real old players, we’re going to show the game. I really think that people will come no matter what. If it’s scabs, the fans will probably show up just to get a good laugh,” he said.

There are at least 34 women who seem certain now to take Sunday off without pay. They are the Rams’ cheerleaders, each of whom will forgo her $25 stipend if Sunday’s game remains canceled.

“If the game is canceled, obviously they won’t be cheering,” said Nancy Van Acker, Rams entertainment coordinator.

But Rams cheerleaders, whose average age is 20, generally also hold more conventional jobs, ranging from teaching school to working in offices.

“It’s not going to affect them that much,” Van Acker said of the strike. “It (cheerleading) is kind of a hobby for them. They are not out of work or anything. If they are scheduled to do charity events (for the team), they will still be doing a lot of that.”

What if NFL owner’s follow through with their vow to field teams of non-union players beginning Oct. 4?

“It’ll be business as usual,” Van Acker said. If the non-union Rams take the field, the cheerleaders will be there to cheer, she said.

The University of Arizona marching band, nearly 200 strong, will not be marching Sunday if the Rams don’t play, Van Acker said. If the band doesn’t march, the university will not collect a $2,000 scholarship fee it was to be paid by the Rams for the band’s services, she said.

Times staff writers David Larsen, Gary Libman and Carla Rivera contributed to this report.