Stadium Staff Are Heroes Too

Didn't Thomas Paine once say "these are the times that try men's souls". 

240 + years later, it very much holds true.

It's been a wing dinger of a March 2020 in the United States.

Not only is our country dealing with a presidential primary, now we have to deal with a devastating crisis called the Corona 19 virus. 

Across the 50 states, in several countries around the world, events are cancelled. 

Thousands have been infected, some have lost lives.

Across the country, schools, offices, restaurants, bars, stores, businesses, arenas, stadiums are closed or have reduced hours of operations.

 Millions of workers are without a paycheck during the next few weeks.

That includes sports arena staff.

March is usually a very busy time for sports.

Whether it's the NCAA March Madness, the playoffs, spring training, the Masters Tournament, Opening day of the MLB, or the NFL draft, there's always something for the fan to be excited about.

This year instead of fans gathered around watching the games, stadiums are silent. 

Social distancing, empty arenas, bars that once were filled with fans have become the new normal.

It takes a village to run a stadium. 

Whether it's somebody who's working security, concessions, custodians, office workers, management, team personnel, etc.., they're all fellow human beings who are doing their jobs. 

They have families to feed and need to be paid. 

Some team owners such as the Ilitch family and Mark Cuban are generously paying the arena staff even though the games have been cancelled. 

Some NBA players have helped arena workers too.

It would be so wonderful to see more team owners or the commissioners of the NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, NCAA step up to the plate and follow their examples.

Even if they don't pay arena staff for lost wages, they should have something in place to compensate for them.

What about starting a fund or having assistance to help the families? 

Hopefully the virus will run its course and end.

But the economic repercussions of what the country is going through will take time to recover from.

Then once again, we fans will root for our teams and fill stadiums.