Aramark, the food services provider for PNC Park and PPG Paints Arena, will lay off over 1,200 workers at the two facilities.
The Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification alerts filed with the Department of Labor and Industry cite the pandemic as the reason for the layoffs. The company alerted the state that there will be 599 layoffs at PNC Park and 626 at PPG Paints arena.
The layoffs date back to March. The company expects the layoffs to be temporary.
The Penguins have not played at PPG Paints since the start of the pandemic. The Pirates played 30 regular-season games at PNC Park and held their summer camp there, creating a need for some staff workers, but not in concessions since there were no fans in the stands.
Recently, Gov. Tom Wolf adjusted guidelines for gatherings in Pennsylvania, allowing partial crowds to attend sporting events. At the World Series in Arlington, Texas, the league and state are allowing up to 11,500 fans to attend games.
The Pirates are planning on fans being allowed back in the ballpark in 2021.
Heinz Field also uses Aramark, and there are no plans for layoffs there. Fans have been in attendance the last two games, albeit in a much smaller capacity, creating some demand.
In March, the Pirates pledged $1 million to stadium workers during the shutdown. The Penguins also pledged to pay stadium workers, with the funding coming from Penguins players, the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation and the Mario Lemieux Foundation.