Stadiums Across the Country Are Using a Volunteer Labor System Ripe for Exploitation

What We Learned This Year is a reporting series about some of the biggest stories of 2023. Read more here.

Most major league sports venues across the country — from Yankee Stadium and Lambeau Field to Sofi Stadium and Truist Park — rely on a volunteer labor system to run their concession stands.

But that system is easily exploited, a Voice of San Diego investigation found this year.

It works like this: Charities bring in volunteers to staff concession stands. In return, the charities get to keep roughly 10 percent of the revenue generated by the stand they operate.

But in San Diego, shady operators have exploited the system for personal gain.

At Petco Park and Snapdragon Stadium, one supposed charity, claiming to support girls softball, wasn’t actually real. The group, Chula Vista Fast Pitch, had been working at Petco for nine years, undetected.

Two other supposed nonprofits were also paying people under the table and below minimum wage — despite having up-to-date paperwork. Between them, the three different groups provided off-the-books labor at Petco, Snapdragon, Chula Vista’s amphitheater, Sports Arena and the former Qualcomm Stadium.

Across the country, “abuses [of the system] are rampant,” said Jordon Kobritz, a lawyer, sports management professor and minor league baseball team owner.

“I recognize its value. And I think it is appropriate in — I’m not gonna say limited circumstances — but it can operate the way it was intended to operate, in a way that is clean, legal and beneficial to all concerned,” said Kobritz. “But that is far from always the case.”

At Yankee Stadium, for example, a group of 17 people sued Legends Hospitality, a company that runs concessions for the Yankees, because, they say, they were never paid. The workers were supposed to be paid $100 per game, they said. Legends claimed at the time that it wasn’t responsible for the wages. It’s unclear who hired the workers at $100 per game — an amount that would not necessarily have complied with New York City’s minimum wage.

For a volunteer labor system to operate legitimately, two things need to happen, according to concessions company consultants and venue insiders.

First, concessions companies — like Legends at Yankee Stadium or Delaware North at Petco Park — must have a rigorous oversight program. They should validate each nonprofit’s paperwork on a yearly basis.

They should also watch out for certain red flags, said Luis Rivera, who runs a concessions consulting firm called First Star Solutions.

A supposed charity bringing in the same volunteers over the course of 81 home games in baseball would be one cause to ask more questions, said Rivera. It’s possible volunteers coming in that frequently would be getting paid — though not according to state and federal laws.

“If I saw same a group with the same volunteers for 81 games, I might not question their intent, but I’m gonna dig a little deeper to understand their cause,” said Rivera.

The incentives facing concessions companies are one of the biggest problems baked into the whole enterprise. It is both cheaper and easier to hire nonprofit groups, concessions insiders say. When stuck between vigilance and keeping their cash registers open, concession companies find themselves in a difficult spot.

Another way to keep nonprofit concessions programs in check is by not over-relying on them, some insiders said. The right balance can depend on the sport.

In the National Football League, for instance, most concession stands tend to be staffed by volunteer groups, because the NFL season is so short.

A football stadium might have 80 percent volunteers and 20 percent employees, said Chris Bigelow, who owns a concessions consulting firm called the Bigelow Companies.

But Major League Baseball has roughly 81 home games a year. It’s easier, at least in theory, for concessions companies to find a workforce.

The Supposed Volunteers Keeping Major San Diego Venues Staffed Are Often Paid Under the Table and Below Minimum Wage

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For that reason, a good ratio for a baseball team might be 80 percent employees and 20 percent volunteers, said Bigelow. (This might vary depending on the labor market in a given city, he said.)

Nonetheless, some baseball stadiums seem to be relying much more heavily than that on volunteer workforces.

David Samson, a former executive for the Miami Marlins, agreed with the 80/20 figure. That was roughly the ratio utilized at the Marlins’ stadium while he was an executive there, he said.

Bigelow and Samson also said you would expect to have a healthy stable of nonprofits to draw from. For instance, if a stadium had 25 nonprofit-run stands, there might be at least 75 different nonprofit groups to call on.

Some stadiums, including Petco Park, rely heavily on individual groups. Chula Vista Fast Pitch, for instance, provided enough workers to staff an average of 12 concession stands a night — for all 81 games of the baseball season, plus concerts.

Real nonprofits can’t usually do this, said Bigelow and Samson. The groups can’t come up with that many volunteers for that many events.

The financial incentive for using volunteer groups is huge, said Kobritz, the minor league baseball team owner.

Big concessions companies are saving tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars each year, he said.

“They just take advantage of the fact that there are nonprofits desperate for money,” said Kobritz. “And in many cases these sports teams are complicit, because they know what’s going on. What they think they’re doing is having a firewall between them and the fraud that’s going on.”