As collective bargaining negotiations continue with Major League Baseball and the MLBPA union, FoulBallSafetyNow.com calls for protecting fans from dangerous foul balls.
With less than a week to go in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between Major League Baseball and its players union, FoulBallSafetyNow.com founder Jordan Skopp is calling on both sides to ensure that mandatory netting requirements are implemented throughout major and minor league ballparks to protect fans from dangerous foul balls.
In three prior rounds of collective bargaining (2007, 2012 and 2017), the parties discussed the issue of fan safety and extended netting. However, no mandate was issued by the Commissioner’s office, and the recommendations that were issued for MLB stadiums have not been implemented to ensure the safety of visitors to the minor league affiliate ballparks.
“Unless this CBA process delivers on a long-overdue mandate for fan safety and extended netting, fans will once again return to unsafe stadiums and ballparks where it is only a matter of time before more fans are seriously injured by high-speed foul balls entering the stands,” according to Jordan Skopp, founder of FoulBallSafetyNow.com.
An analysis conducted by Foul Ball Safety Now found that at the beginning of the 2021 minor league baseball season, forty-two (42) MLB-affiliated ballparks were operating with no safety netting beyond the dugouts.
“This is an occupational hazard to players – not just fans – due to the psychological impact on players who happen to maim fans with foul balls, particularly those incidents involving young children,” said Skopp.
If an agreement is reached by the end of February, baseball fans will return to watching games live in MLB stadiums on Opening Day, March 31, followed by the minor leagues on April 5.
“There will be compromises made on both sides to reach a deal, but the one issue on which there must no longer be any compromise is the immediate assurance of fan safety. Will 2022 be the year that professional baseball finally mandates extended safety netting to protect all fans seated in high-risk seating areas throughout major and minor league facilities? It must happen.” said Skopp.
For more information, visit https://www.foulballsafetynow.com/
About Jordan Skopp:
Jordan Skopp is a baseball fan, stadium safety advocate, and author of an upcoming book detailing foul ball injuries at professional parks and what can be done to end the fan maiming crisis. Skopp is the founder of https://www.foulballsafetynow.com/.
About Foul Ball Safety Now
Foul Ball Safety Now! is a campaign started by Jordan Skopp, a Brooklyn realtor, lifelong baseball fan, and author of a forthcoming book about the wildly overlooked scandal in the professional baseball industry – the all-too-frequent incidence of fans being maimed by dangerous foul balls due to the lack of extended protective netting, and related failures to educate fans about their assumed risk at the ballgame.