Faster games have Blue Jays pondering extending last call at the baseball bar

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What happens when new MLB rules to speed up games mean that last call at the baseball bar comes a little too early?

You consider alternatives to extend the hours for both sellers and drinkers, of course.

The Blue Jays are among several teams across Major League Baseball who are considering extending beer and alcohol sales into the eighth inning as a response to shortened game times thanks to the introduction of a pitch clock this season.

Early returns on the pitch clock that is speeding up the time of games at big-league parks across North America are for the most part positive. There’s far less wasted time, games are often getting completed in two hours and 30 minutes or less which in turn is livening up the fan experience.

But if there’s a downside, it’s that there is far less time for quaffing the adult beverages that enhance the experience for many fans.

The Associated Press reports that at least four teams in the majors — the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers — have extended booze sales through the eighth inning.

According to a team source, the Jays are in the evaluation phase starting with this week’s unveiling of renovations at the Rogers Centre, a sprucing up that includes some attractive new bar areas in the stadium’s outfield.

Obviously the team wants to maximize the financial benefit of those areas, such as the Corona Rooftop Bar high in the 500 level, but also to allow fans to best enjoy the experience.

So the team will be evaluating fan behaviour and preferences. According to the source, it will “expect to make adjustments” over the next few months. With several of the social spaces putting fans — and thus drinkers — far closer to the field — the team wants to make sure there are no booze-related problems before adopting new measures.

Most teams — the Jays included — have a seventh-inning cutoff, a guideline to avoid over-serving, especially for games that sprawl well beyond three hours in length. But with a possibility of games reaching that stage 90 minutes or less after the first pitch, it’s less than ideal for both sides of the beer equation – those selling and those drinking.

Though MLB has no hard and fast regulation on when alcohol sales must be cutoff, the majority have teams have done so in the seventh inning. The main reason was to avoid over-serving. But with less time for that to happen, teams are reconsidering those practices, including the Jays.