I live close to the Western and Lawrence intersection in Chicago. It's an active area in Lincoln Square, always filled with cars and buses passing through, and a high volume of foot traffic visiting the shops and restaurants. An ambient sound continuously sprinkled with the thrust of jet engines flying overhead as airplanes make their descent into O'Hare.
A day after the "Stay-at-home order" from Illinois Governor, J.B. Pritzker, my neighborhood is eerily quiet. Your neighborhood probably is, too. The resulting impact of COVID-19 as most of the world halts their daily routines to combat the virus spread. Hopefully, normality will soon return thanks to our efforts. Unless Florida ruins everything.
While practicing social distancing and self quarantined for more than a week, my introverted side is enjoying the peace of being at home. But that peace will come to an end on Thursday. That was supposed to be Opening Day. A time to be social visiting tailgate parties at 10 AM, eating plenty of food, drinking too much beer, and sharing many laughs with friends. Now, I'll be sitting on the couch next to my girlfriend and our dog playing MLB the Show. Shockingly, it doesn't feel the same.
We still don't have an idea of when baseball will return, but we did get some insight from the White Sox on how they are preparing for the 2020 season. This past Saturday, the Vice President of Sales and Services, Jim Willits, sent out a communication to White Sox fans via email.
MLB is developing several contingency plans for the 2020 regular season schedule and will announce the impact on the schedule at an appropriate time, with the goal of resuming normal operations as soon as possible. To date, no games have been canceled. Please hold on to your tickets until an official policy is announced. We are working through our approach to handling ticket issues with MLB and will communicate details to fans as they become available. We appreciate your patience and understanding in the meantime.
MLB is following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation of no gatherings of more than 50 people until mid-May firmly. It is highly doubtful that any baseball games would be played with fans at the ballpark in April. My tickets that I purchased for games in April now say "Postponed."
Which, I get why they say postponed. From a business perspective, these tickets may still be useful as MLB is trying to figure out a way for these games to be played. If they can play the games, they get to keep my money, and they don't suffer any financial losses. Even if the rescheduled dates don't work with my schedule, that's not their problem. That's my problem as the customer because I bought the tickets, and last I checked, there wasn't a return policy for tickets like buying a shirt that doesn't quite fit.
Hence why MLB is saying the games are postponed instead of canceled. They get to keep our money. That's not a great look, while many fans' livelihoods have been severely impacted. I spent $400 on White Sox tickets for games in April, and I'm lucky enough not to need that money right now. Some are not.
What the White Sox and MLB should do is refund all ticket purchases for April. Even if the games get rescheduled at a later date, nothing is stopping any team from having a flash sale. Online orders would still pour in as people plan their escapes from extended cabin fever. Sure, the franchise that is worth $1.5 billion would take a revenue hit, but fans that are struggling and could use a boost would appreciate getting their money back.
