Brooklyn Cyclones concessions staff have been getting stiffed on a few of their paychecks this season, as ideas disappeared beneath new administration, based on interviews and information obtained by The Metropolis Reporter.
Summer season continuously attracts lengthy traces of spectators shopping for scorching canine and beers to the city-owned Coney Island stadium, the place clients are mechanically prompted to tip after each buy. But staff haven’t acquired any tips about some paychecks, based on 15 pay stubs obtained from a half dozen staff between Might and August. Lots of the staff, youths of their late teenagers and early 20s, stated the lacking ideas have made it harder to cowl their residing bills.
“I needed to get a second job simply to pay for my tuition as a result of I used to be relying on this job,” stated one cashier. “With our pay being so low and never getting ideas, it wasn’t going to be sufficient to get me via my semester.”
Workers started noticing the lacking ideas after the staff’s proprietor, Diamond Baseball Holdings, took over managing the concessions from a contractor firstly of the 2026 season. In earlier years, staff may earn as a lot as $200 or extra on a busy night time. The concessions don’t settle for money, so all ideas are made by way of credit score or debit playing cards. Some staff have put out tip jars in a principally futile try to make up among the distinction, they stated.
Failing to pay staff their ideas violates state labor legal guidelines. Bank card ideas should be paid out by the tip of the identical pay interval. Employers who illegally retain ideas could be prosecuted for wage theft and charged with grand larceny beneath the state’s penal code. Employees agreed to talk with the Metropolis Reporter on the situation of anonymity out of concern of retaliation.
“The regulation, particularly in New York, makes it very clear that ideas are the property of staff,” stated Mel Gonzalez, director of the Employment Legislation Mission on the New York Authorized Help Fund. “If I give somebody some cash and anyone else comes and takes it, that’s simply stealing.”
In an interview, Elbert Sanders, the Cyclones’ meals and beverage director, stated that he discovered of the problem after staff confirmed him that their pay stubs didn’t embrace ideas. He gave conflicting details about when he discovered concerning the withheld ideas, and steered {that a} recently-terminated supervisor was accountable.
That supervisor was fired for allegedly including tricks to different folks’s paychecks in addition to their very own, emails obtained by The Metropolis Reporter present.
“I can’t let you know my degree of disappointment that you’d have an individual main individuals who wasn’t taking note of the information being paid out,” Sanders informed The Metropolis Reporter. “It’s inexcusable.”
Sanders stated he reported the issue to the Cyclones’ proprietor and glued the problem himself. “I made certain every a kind of folks obtained tipped out for the time that they have been there,” he stated.
Nonetheless, pay stubs reviewed following the termination of the supervisor present that as not too long ago as August 7, some staff haven’t acquired ideas. In interviews, staff stated they’ve heard nothing about again pay for misplaced gratuities from earlier within the season. Others acquired ideas inconsistently — on some pay checks their wages included ideas whereas others didn’t, information present.
“Even when we’re getting our ideas now, what about all the different weeks?” one worker stated, as she reviewed a pay stub on a latest afternoon in Coney Island.
The Brooklyn Cyclones, a minor league affiliate of the New York Mets, have been bought in 2024 by Diamond Baseball Holdings as a part of an acquisition spree that noticed the conglomerate snap up virtually 50 minor league groups nationwide. The staff’s house base is at Coney Island’s Maimonides Park. The corporate manages all features of the franchise, together with ticketing and concessions.
“We take worker issues very severely and have taken vital steps to make sure staff have acquired their acceptable compensation within the wake of the transition between service suppliers,” stated Lauren Flemming, a vice chairman of communications for Diamond Baseball Holdings. The corporate took over the concessions operation from a contractor in 2026.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani has prioritized implementing labor legal guidelines after campaigning on affordability points. Final month, the Division of Client and Employee Safety reported that 70,000 supply drivers have made a further $104 million in ideas this 12 months after the town started implementing a regulation that required supply firms to current tip choices at checkout.
Minor League Spending Spree
Maimonides Park first opened in 2001 as a part of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s pledge to convey skilled baseball again to Brooklyn. After the park was constructed with $20 million in public funds, the Mets moved an affiliated minor league staff from Massachusetts to Coney Island, renaming it the Cyclones after the well-known rollercoaster close by. The staff has received six division titles and produced greater than 30 MLB gamers.
A onetime a part of Mets proprietor and billionaire hedge fund supervisor Steve Cohen’s New York Metropolis empire, the staff’s possession modified palms in late 2024, when personal fairness agency Diamond Baseball Holdings acquired the Cyclones from Cohen Personal Ventures.
Established in 2021, the little-known agency has invested a minimum of $2 billion in acquisitions and upgrades within the final 5 years, in accordance to the Sports activities Enterprise Journal. The corporate has picked up groups throughout the nation together with in San Jose, California; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Memphis, Tennessee. Diamond Baseball Holdings is in flip owned by Silver Lake Companions, a agency with an enormous portfolio of expertise and leisure investments, together with a share of Madison Sq. Backyard and the WWE franchise.
The corporate’s technique has included interesting to native governments to help renovations and new stadium constructions. Gov. Kathy Hochul allotted $6 million to Diamond Baseball Holdings on this 12 months’s state finances to assist rehabilitate the upstate stadium of one other New York staff, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.
The Metropolis Reporter reviewed public employment postings of the 49 groups acquired by Diamond Baseball Holdings. In a lot of its stadiums, the corporate nonetheless contracts with distributors to employees its concession stands, based on job posts. However in a minimum of 15 of its stadiums, the corporate employs concession staff instantly, the postings present. That features Maimonides Park.
Till final 12 months, the park’s concession stands have been operated by international meals providers firm Aramark. Present staff stated that whereas working for Aramark, they every had a singular login that allowed them to trace the bank card ideas earned throughout every shift. On the finish of every week, staff knew precisely how a lot that they had earned.
Ideas make up a major a part of concessions staff’ earnings. One worker averaged greater than $150 per week in further ideas beneath Aramark over a five-week interval final 12 months, employee financial institution statements present. The quantity of ideas the employee acquired final 12 months was equal to greater than 12 hours of hourly pay after taxes, or two to a few shifts.
Workers who labored on the stadium each final 12 months and this 12 months stated that in a packed weekend recreation, their ideas may generally attain a whole lot of {dollars} in a single night time. A weeknight recreation could also be sparsely attended however promotional nights — like Seinfeld night time on August 1 that included a bobblehead giveaway and an Elaine Benes dance competitors — can draw capability crowds to the 7,000-seat stadium.
Earlier than the beginning of the 2026 season, Diamond Baseball Holdings emailed employees explaining that they’d have to be rehired, because it was now not contracting with Aramark. Returning staff described a cursory hiring course of. Upon accepting the job, every employee signed an employment settlement that contained no point out of ideas in addition to an arbitration settlement, based on paperwork reviewed by the Metropolis Reporter.
By signing the arbitration settlement, staff waived their proper to a trial for any disputes over their employment, together with their wages, the doc exhibits. As an alternative, staff should settle any disputes individually and sophistication motion fits are prohibited.
Labor advocates have repeatedly criticized these agreements as continuously exploitative of low-wage staff.
“Arbitration is rarely a worker-friendly discussion board,” stated Carmela Huang, a senior legal professional on the Nationwide Middle for Legislation and Financial Justice. “It’s a method of actually conserving staff from accessing their rights as soon as they’ve been established.”
Below Diamond Baseball Holdings, managers informed staff, reasonably than incomes ideas individually, gratuities can be pooled and distributed between the staff of every concession stand, based on interviews and emails. However cashiers can’t observe the quantity of ideas their stand earns as a result of everybody makes use of the identical login.
Nonetheless, for weeks, cashiers earned no tips about their paychecks in any respect, paystubs present. Below New York labor legal guidelines, when ideas are paid to staff on a bank card, they should be paid out by the following paycheck.
Even with the shift to pooled ideas, the corporate should be capable of clearly account for the way they’re divided between employees, stated Richard Blum, an employment legal professional with the Authorized Assist Society.
“They need to be indicating to folks what the overall quantity of ideas was, after which every particular person ought to understand how a lot they’re getting,” he stated.
As frustration grew amongst staff, some staff resorted to placing out empty soda cups to earn some further money, the Metropolis Reporter noticed at a number of video games. Often, staff have warned clients to not trouble tipping on their bank card, for the reason that cash wasn’t going to concessions employees.
However extra typically, amid the quick tempo of the concessions counters, staff didn’t have the chance to say something.
“Folks simply often faucet their card and hit the tip button actual quick,” stated one employee. “I don’t need to inform them that we’re not getting it after they’ve paid.”
Whereas ideas have begun showing on some paychecks, the funds have been inconsistent, staff stated. The Metropolis Reporter reviewed pay stubs from all through the season that didn’t embrace any notation for ideas in any respect. Even when ideas started showing on some staff’ pay stubs, on some events they totaled as little as $30 after a number of shifts.
Supervisor Fired
In early July, Diamond Baseball Holdings accused a supervisor of misappropriating worker ideas and terminated her, based on emails obtained by the Metropolis Reporter.
“We performed an intensive investigation and located proof that you simply distributed tricks to staff who weren’t clocked in throughout the related shifts and added tricks to your individual paychecks,” wrote Tara Tillman, a human assets director at Diamond Baseball Holdings. The July 6 electronic mail continued that “this constitutes theft and a severe breach of fiduciary accountability incompatible with continued employment.”
The worker disputed the result of the investigation in a follow-up electronic mail, providing documentation to help her account. Tillman didn’t reply to further questions from the supervisor about her termination, based on the emails.
Diamond Baseball Holdings didn’t reply to detailed questions from the Metropolis Reporter about whether or not the corporate performed any wider investigation into how the information are distributed amongst stadium staff. It stated it didn’t touch upon particular person personnel issues when requested concerning the termination of the supervisor.
After the supervisor was fired, staff continued to query whether or not their ideas have been appropriate. On July 17, a cashier wrote to Sanders, the Cyclones’ director of meals and beverage, to inquire about how the information have been distributed, emails present. She found her ideas have been considerably decrease than one among her buddies working on the identical stand, based on pay stubs and interviews.
The director responded that the information have been pooled day by day among the many staff at every concession stand and didn’t embrace managers. He inspired the worker to supply higher service.
“The stands with the least quantity of drama and battle are likely to have larger tip swimming pools,” he wrote.
In an interview with the Metropolis Reporter, Sanders reiterated that each one ideas have been paid out. “I do know that I did what was proper,” he stated. “As soon as I obtained there, I made certain that that was now not a problem.”
Nonetheless, not all staff are receiving ideas as a part of their wages. Two staff shared copies of their most up-to-date pay stubs with the Metropolis Reporter, dated August 7. Though each staff had labored a number of shifts throughout that pay interval, neither acquired any ideas, information present.
“If staff haven’t been getting their ideas, that’s clearly unlawful beneath the New York Labor Legislation,” stated Louis Pechman, a labor legal professional who teaches a course on wage theft at Fordham Legislation Faculty.
Regardless that ideas have been included on some staff’ pay checks, it doesn’t essentially imply that the corporate is in compliance with the regulation, Pechman stated. “The apparent concern is whether or not the employees obtain again pay for ideas that have been misappropriated by administration,” he stated.
In a second interview, on Wednesday night, Sanders insisted that each one eligible staff had acquired their ideas.
The Cyclones’ season ends on September 6, with a house recreation at Maimonides Park. Concessions staff stated they have been already making use of to raised paying stadium gigs. The base pay for a cashier working on the U.S. Open is about $23 per hour.
