With Major League Baseball still unsure when or if there will be games played this year at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals announced Tuesday afternoon a $1 million fund to offer financial support for concession workers, cleanup crew members, emergency medical staff and others on the game-day staff who work for companies that have contracts with the club.
This is the second fund of $1 million that the Cardinals have established since the coronavirus crisis cancelled spring training and forced the postponement of all games through at least mid-May.
In the announcement Tuesday, the Cardinals outlined how the new fund will be used for grants and organized by Cardinals Care, the charitable arm of the organization, and the St. Louis Community Foundation, which will administer the fund. The $1-million pool has been set aside for employees of companies, like Delaware North, for example, who work on a part-time or contract basis during game days at Busch. That group includes concession workers, vendors, security details, and even the emergency medical teams that staff every game.
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The Cardinals estimate there will be 1,900 people eligible.
The contract-company workers can apply for a one-time, $450 grant from the fund (link here). The remaining money will be used to help cases of extreme hardship, the Cardinals confirmed in the announcement.
This past month, the Cardinals and the other 29 major-league teams each established a $1-million fund for club employees that work on the game-day staff. That group includes the grounds crew, scoreboard operators, interns, retail staff and others directly employed by the Cardinals and used on game days or seasonally. This fund awards payments from $500 to $1,275 depending on factors such as tenure, need, and other factors.
Cardinals full-time employees were notified they would be paid through April -- at which time the organization intends to have a formal plan in place and also more information about when and how the MLB season will resume. That group of employees does include the minor-league coaches, big-league coaches, scouts, and many others in the baseball operations department.
“We are committed to helping the St. Louis community during the COVID-19 pandemic,” club president Bill DeWitt III stated in the announcement of the second fund. “Providing financial support for our seasonal and game-day employees is critical, and we consider all Busch Stadium workers—regardless of what company name is on their paycheck—to be part of the Cardinals family.”