More Drinking Time at Texas Rangers Games

The aptly named Milwaukee Brewers are giving fans more time to drink beer.

Or it really less time?

That probably depends on perspective.

Thanks in large part to the adoption of the pitch clock and other time-saving measures, MLB games are about 30 minutes shorter so far this season. While that’s exactly what the league and most fans want, there is an unintended financial consequence at play.

Namely, less time to drink.

Since the general standard across MLB stadiums is to cut off alcohol sales after the seventh inning, vendors are seeing sales cut off earlier than years past. Factor that over thousands of imbibing fans and that’s a lot of unsold beer.

So the Brewers have decided on an experimental basis to stop selling alcohol after the eighth inning.

“Games are shorter,” Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger told MLB.com. “From a time perspective, we’re probably looking at selling beer for the same amount of time by extending to the eighth inning that we did last year through the seventh.

“Obviously, the safety and the conduct of our fans has primacy. We’ve had no issues, but it’s a small sample size and we’re going to continue to test it and see if it makes sense. I know a number of other teams are doing the same thing.”

The Texas Rangers are one of those teams, with changes made for the 2023 season to extend alcohol sales throughout Globe Life Field through the eighth inning. Prior to this season, the team policy along with concessions partner Delaware North was the end of the eighth inning at concession stands and end of the seventh in the seating bowl.

For this season, according to a team spokesperson, in an effort to maintain consistency and partly in reaction to the timing changes, the Rangers/Delaware North are cutting off alcohol sales at the end of the eighth.

So Rangers fans can get a cold one or two for an inning longer. The Rangers return to Globe Life Field with the start of a three-game series Monday night against the Kansas City Royals.

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