Baseball's opening day will not happen on time, and businesses in the Fenway area will feel the effect.
Negotiations to end Major League Baseball’s lockout went into extra innings, with a deadline being delayed until Tuesday, but the sides were unable to reach a deal to prevent a lockout.
Earlier Tuesday, Red Sox fans and baseball-dependent businesses near Fenway Park were hopeful the season would start on time.
"It’s money, we have talented people, they want their money, and those people who sit up in those offices, they play them like chess pieces, so I think they should just come out and negotiate, man, they should be at spring training right now, it ain’t fair, I was to see some baseball," Red Sox fan Clayton Childers said.
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"I hope they get the full season in, I hope there’s no delay, so I hope they come up with whatever they have to, to get the season going," said Red Sox fan Barry Dean.
MLB analyst and former GM Jim Bowden said in a tweet Tuesday morning that the League and the Players’ Association are "close enough to (a) deal, it will get done with both sides compromising."
"You feel helpless in that situation," Official Red Sox Team Store General Manager Scott Saklad said.
For businesses that live in the shadow of the famed ballpark, and rely on their season to keep their business afloat, it’s been a tense few months watching from the sidelines to see what happens.
The Official Red Sox Team Store has its Opening Day gear ready to go.
"hat would be detrimental to our business, because once they're gone, they're gone, they're not making them up," Saklad said of a shortened season. "Obviously, we would suffer the – what we could have made, and you know it's been a tough few years."
