Thanks to New MLB Rules, The Astros Have Changed How They Sell Alcohol (Houston, TX)
The Texas Rangers were one of the very first teams in Major League Baseball to extend alcohol sales, and now their rivals in Houston, TX are following suit.
If you didn't know MLB made several changes this year, one of the biggest being the "pitch clock" which is doing exactly what it was implemented to do, shorten games. But perhaps it's working too well.
JUST IN: The #Astros will extend limited alcohol sales through the end of games as #MLB contests are being played much faster in ‘23 due to rule changes.
Through the first two weeks of the season, the average nine-inning game is 31 shorter than the average game from last year. Last year games averaged three hours, nine minutes, this year it's all the way down to two hours and 38 minutes. In fact it the fastest average game in almost 40 years.
So, this is good news for Major League Baseball, they are getting the shorter games they wanted... but not so much for ballparks and the team's bottom lines. These shorter games mean less chance for fans to spend money at games, and less time to sell them beer.
As long as I can remember teams cutoff alcohol after the seventh inning stretch and I've always thought this was to slow down folks from drinking thus decreasing the opportunity for fans to leave drunk in their cars out of ballparks.
As of today, four teams have already pushed alcohol sales to after the eighth inning, including: The Arizona Diamondbacks, the Texas Rangers, the Minnesota Twins, and the Milwaukee Brewers.
And now the Houston Astros are extending beer sales through the end of the game, with a few stipulations.
ABC13 reports that "vendors will still stop selling in the stands at the end of the 7th inning, 40% of locations throughout the stadium will stay open through the end of the game - or four hours after the first pitch - whichever comes first."
This goes into affect immediately.