Tag: TD Garden

While the Boston Celtics have made a commitment to pay their game-night staff at TD Garden for the games suspended by the coronavirus pandemic, many more Garden employees are still in the dark a to whether they will receive any much-needed pay.

TD Garden is a comparatively rare arrangement in the NBA in that the Celtics do not own the arena in which they play, renting it from the parent company who own the building as well as the NHL’s Boston Bruins.

The Bruins and their parent company that owns TD Garden, Delaware North, are now the sole NHL franchise not committing to paying arena workers for lost wages, leaving something of a black mark on the organization for their slow response.

This is really troubling. Delaware North owns the Bruins, and its the only organization in the NHL that hasn’t announced financial support to game day employees. These wages will make a huge difference to hourly workers at the Garden. I hope the Jacobs family will act soon. https://t.co/tEYwjSfPyD

— Maura Healey (@MassAGO) March 19, 2020

Jeremy M. Jacobs, the principle owner, has not made a statement on the issue, but Bruins vice president of marketing and communications Matt Chmura released a statement on March 13:

“Delaware North at its core is a family company and our top priority is to provide our associates, and their families, with the assurances they deserve during this difficult time. We are actively exploring support options and will have further information in the coming days.”

The Boston Herald’s Marisa Ingemi reports both the Bruins and Delaware North organizations returned inquiries for comment on these issues, but Garden workers told the Herald they’d been advised to seek unemployment benefits, but have heard little else from their employer.

Hopefully the impasse is solved soon, as these families join many others around the U.S. as struggling to make ends meet in the wake of closures in a number of industries impacted by the coronavirus.

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The Boston Celtics’ team-employed game-night arena support staff will be paid through the rest of the regular season, reports MassLive’s John Karalis.

There has been growing concern for the hourly workers of the NBA world, who are among the U.S. and Canada’s hardest-hit with their jobs shuttering ahead of many industries across the two countries.

Pressure for teams around the NBA to cover the salaries of the hourly workers began to pick up in recent days, with most if not all teams committing to covering the much-needed wages.

Full story: According to a team source, Celtics-employed, game-night personnel will be paid through scheduled regular season https://t.co/D9pmNCJnNh

— John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@RedsArmy_John) March 17, 2020

Due to the fact that the arena the Celtics play in — TD Garden — being owned by their sister franchise in the NHL, the Boston Bruins, it seems there were some kinks to iron out to get such a scenario settled for the arena workers.

The solution seems to be for at least the Celtics to take care of their own, as they should.

Saturday evening, the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn reported the Celtics were working on such a proposition, and it seems — mercifully — to have been achieved.

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If you haven’t checked out of all things NBA after the league suspended activities following Rudy Gobert’s positive test results for the coronavirus, you’ve likely noticed a trend unfolding among team governors and players.

A number of franchise owners and players have stepped forward to guarantee the salaries of arena staff and other hourly employees affiliated with the team, yet the Boston Celtics have not.

It isn’t because they’d prefer not to.

The Celtics do not own the building in which they call home court — TD Garden belongs to the sister franchise of the NHL, the Boston Bruins.

#Celtics are working on a plan to compensate their game-night staff in the wake of season suspension. But the TD Garden workers are not employed by the Celtics. Suggestion: the Celtics and #Bruins work together to form a compensation package for TD Garden workers.

— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) March 14, 2020

So, working out a means of compensating employees which are technically not their own is taking some work, but the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn reports the Celtics are working on a plan to get this taken care of.

No word yet on whether it involves the Bruins organization, but one has to think that the call has at least been made.

Knowing the history of strong community engagement with both organizations, it seems likely it’s more a matter of time rather than if some kind of aid is made available to the local workers who make games for both teams possible.

And with the impact of social isolation practices and game suspensions already taking a big toll on the local economy, such aid will be greatly needed.

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The cancellation of NBA games and preventative measures encouraging limiting exposure to large groups of people is having a strong negative impact on businesses around the country, and Boston is no exception.

After the league suspended all games for the Boston Celtics and other 29 teams, local businesses immediately began to feel the impact. No games, no downtown crowds, no business, no money, no paychecks for many in the service industry.

While it was undoubtedly the right move to make from a public health perspective, the economic aspect of these precautionary measures is very real, and significant.

At local staples like Sullivan’s Tap, proprietors are turning back deliveries with no clients to sell them to, reports the Boston Herald’s Stefan Geller.

“The difference in attendance on a game night is massive; we go from having maybe 20 people here all night to having 300 or 400,” explained Sullivan’s Tap manager Stephanie Scione (via Geller). “What do you do now? How do you get people through the door?”

While it may be good health advice to avoid such large crowds, many working-class families depend on their wages from such surges in business, and will be hard-pressed to make ends meet in their absence.

It’s putting business owners and their employees n a very difficult situation.

West End businesses brace for downturn after NBA and NHL suspend seasons over coronavirus https://t.co/wMfPCuiCNZ#boston

— Ratty (@HeyRatty) March 13, 2020

Tony Costa, a manager for nearby The Fours Restaurant & Sports Bar relates that his clientele on non-game nights is just 10 % of a game night, and it may soon force some tough decisions.

“We go from 40 employees down to five or six when there’s no game … You never want to talk about layoffs, but whatever happens happens.”

The owner of Boston Beer Works Joe Slesar suggests the reaction is not unlike what was seen after the September 11th or Boston Marathon bomber terrorist attacks, and could result in the loss of hundreds of local jobs.

“There are hundreds of families that depend on our business and there are thousands that depend on hospitality in general … We’ve got to tighten our belts and stick through this, but we’re trying to figure out what we can do with our staff.”

“It’s not just us, it’s the food vendors, the cleaning companies, the delivery people,” added Costa. “Everyone in the area is going to feel the effects.”