Hundreds of food workers at arenas are losing their jobs

No fans in the stands has meant no work for more than 1,450 food service employees who once served patrons at jammed sport venues in Miami, Orlando and St. Petersburg.

The all-too-familiar reason: The coronavirus has short-circuited the schedules of the teams that call those cities home. So now, their jobs are being terminated effective Aug. 1.

The contractor employing the workers — Levy Premium Food Services of Chicago — informed the state of Florida this week that it is laying off 587 people at AmericanAirlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat basketball team; 448 people at the Amway Center in Orlando, home to the Orlando Magic; and 422 people at Tropicana Field, home field of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team.

None of those professional sports teams has been active since the coronavirus forced the NBA and Major League Baseball to suspend play this past spring.

According to a series of layoff notices filed with the state Department of Economic Opportunity, Levy cited ‘recent sports league announcements that teams would not return to playing in front of fans for a number of months, and/or government directives requiring longer term cancellation of events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Besides managers and supervisors, most of the workers affected are bartenders, cashiers, cooks and servers. Levy said they can all reapply for employment when the business returns.

Although the Heat and Magic will be resuming play in late July to finish their seasons, it will be at a specially created venue at Disney World. The Magic will not play on their home court in Orlando.

Less certain is the fate of the Rays and the possibility of viewing live baseball at Tropicana Field. While Major League Baseball has decided to launch a 60-game season later this month, Tampa Bay area officials are still deliberating on whether the local ball team can play before fans while local coronavirus cases continue to rise.