With the COVID-19 pandemic creating uncertainty about the viability of the upcoming football season, the food concessionaire at TIAA Bank Field filed a notice saying it is laying off 727 workers at the stadium.
Delaware North sent a letter to state officials June 30 under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act saying it is laying off workers at least temporarily, but not necessarily permanently.
“Please note that this is an evolving situation and as business resumes, we will be recalling associates,” Chief Human Resources Officer Eileen Morgan said in the letter.
Besides the jobs at Jacksonville’s football stadium, the letter also detailed 2,380 layoffs at other venues around Florida.
Those include Amalie Arena in Tampa, the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and an Italian restaurant in EPCOT at Walt Disney World.
The Jacksonville Jaguars last week announced they will allow only 25% of seats to be occupied by fans at games this season, which would sharply reduce concession volume.
But questions continue whether the NFL and college football seasons will be played at all in the fall amid the pandemic.
Delaware North’s letter said it began temporarily laying off the workers in March, expecting it to last less than six months. Now it looks more likely that pandemic-related cancellations will continue past six months.
“This was an unforeseen business circumstance that renders us unable to forecast the precise timeline for business to resume to a level sufficient to return all of our associates to work,” it said.
Buffalo, New York-based Delaware North provides services at more than 60 sports and entertainment venues.
It has been the concessionaire at TIAA Bank Field since 2016.