Sexism Strikes at the Ballpark

Written By: Cudo on June 18, 2009 No Comment

Planning a Mother’s Day Giveaway? Better think twice about offering a gift to the first 1000 moms, or any other gender specific giveaway….as the Oakland A’s are finding out.

It so happens that on May 8, 2004, the Oakland A’s had a Mother’s Day promotion. There was a fight-breast-cancer 5K run before the game, free mammograms and the first 7,500 women through the gate got floppy plaid sun hats from Macy’s. Nice day for the ladies.

Except that last part really hacked off a man named Alfred G. Rava. He was incensed that men weren’t getting a floppy plaid sun hat for Mother’s Day. He was so mad about it that he sued.

It gets worse. He has nearly won. A judge has given preliminary approval to a $510,000 settlement — roughly half to lawyers and the rest to the “victims” — the poor, downtrodden gender-disadvantaged waifs like Rava who didn’t get their floppy Mother’s Day hats. This is where you come in.

If you can prove you were one of the first 7,500 people there that day, you get $50 in cash, two-for-one A’s tickets and a $25 Macy’s coupon. It won’t be hard. All you have to do is (A) state under oath that you are a male, (B) show some kind of receipt for your ticket and (C) swear you were there early. That’s good enough. There’s no video, and nobody’s going to spend $5,000 deposing you about $100. (ESPN-Rick Reilly)

It goes without saying that we live in a litigious society….but apparently we live in a shame-free society for some as well. I was relieved to find out that no one is taking up the A’s on this absurd legal rendering. Perhaps it’s an isolated case of being an ass.

It does however note the importance of covering the bases when dealing with any promotion or giveaway. Sometimes it’s enough to have a standing offer on promotions like this to give a hat to any man who asks at a customer service table. In some states it’s not legal to ask people to donate an item for admission unless you also offer people an option not to donate. For example, if you said come to an exhibition game and get in for a donation of one canned food item, then you must (in some states) agree to let people in if they do not want to donate.

In the end, its worth an occasional meeting with your staff attorney (or to hire one) to go through your plans and discuss local and state laws. There are probably a lot of people like Alfred Rava with nothing else to do….so you can nip that so you can spend more time on making your events great and less time fighting a lawsuit.

–Cudo

Jon Cudo is the Editor of Gameops.com and a 21-year veteran in game presentation and the most tenured mascot in team sports. His blog covers everything from game night promotions, site news, mascotting, book reviews and more. Cudo's blog appears twice a week on Gameops.com.
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