Baseball, the Grinch That Stole Halloween – Wall Street Journal

Kansas City, Mo.

On Wednesday night, John Nguyen packed four kids into the car and drove downtown to a haunted house called Edge of Hell. Visiting this scare-inducing haunt—a Kansas City landmark since 1975—is a Halloween tradition for Nguyen, who was prepared to drop $130 on tickets.

But to his dismay, the Edge of Hell on Wednesday evening was closed—a casualty of World Series Game 2 between the Kansas City Royals and New York Mets.

In Kansas City this week, baseball is the Grinch of Halloween. A later-than-usual MLB schedule combined with Kansas City’s second postseason appearance in 30 years means that baseball is stealing this city’s Halloween thrills.

In New York, Mets fever is tempered by a preponderance of Yankees fans as well as other big events such as Sunday’s marathon. But the first pitch of a World Series game turns Kansas City into a ghost town. More than 75% of Kansas City TVs tuned into Game 1. An upscale, television-free restaurant called Room 39 has been nearly empty during the World Series. But far from resenting customers who have stayed away, owner Andrew Folger finds himself casting a critical eye at those who have shown up. “I was looking at them thinking, ‘Who are you people? Don’t you know there’s a World Series game on? Why are you here?’” says Folger, wearing a Royals hat.

On Saturday night, Game 4 will start just as darkness falls on Halloween, to the chagrin of concert promoters, theatres, fundraisers and haunted houses across Kansas City.

“This could cause us to take a bath,” says Marc Saighman, an organizer of an annual Halloween fundraiser, called the Bacchus Bash, that charges $55 to $85 for tickets to a costume party for young professionals. Saighman, a lawyer, says his reading of MLB copyright laws suggests that only one 55-inch or smaller television can be installed per room, and the Bacchus Bash takes place mostly in one large room at Union Station.

The company that owns the Edge of Hell and three other nearby haunted houses learned last year that a Royals postseason game could be deadly for business. So before launching its 2015 Halloween season in September—at a point when the Royals seemed assured of a playoff spot—Full Moon Productions Inc. decided to leave closed one haunted house and to open the others only 26 nights, down from 34 last year. “The Royals hurt us,” says Full Moon vice president (and full-blown Royals fan) Amber Arnett-Bequeaith.

“But it could be worse,” she said. Noting that the Royals have made the playoffs only twice in 30 years, she said, “I could be running this type of business in St. Louis, where the Cardinals make the playoffs every year.”

Last week, the Edge of Hell received a visit from Royals catcher Salvador Perez, just ahead of the team’s Game 6 Friday night against Toronto. Explaining to Perez the detrimental effect of the games on her business, Arnett-Bequeaith said she implored him to finish off Toronto on Friday night. “I told him that the Saturday night before Halloween was our biggest night, and he promised me that the Royals would win in six,” she says, adding, “He kept his promise.”

Childrens’ candy bags could also take a hit here. Usually, Matt Gietzen and his wife take their boys trick or treating for three hours, until 9 p.m. But Saturday night’s outing will end at 7 p.m., when the game starts, said Gietzen. “If the kids really holler, then my wife will have to take them back out, which being a big Royals fan she won’t be happy about,” said Gietzen.

Caught especially unawares was a Los Angeles Black Sabbath tribute band, all female, called Mistress of Reality. Their gothic style makes them hugely popular on Halloween, and Harrah’s booked them months ago to play at its casino Saturday night in Kansas City. Reached by phone, lead singer Paulette Campbell said she didn’t think heavy metal fans overlapped a great deal with baseball fans. After consulting with a Harrah’s entertainment executive in Kansas City, however, Campbell called back to say that her band’s entrance on stage had been pushed back to 11:30.

“Please tell everyone they don’t have to choose between us and baseball. They can do both,” said Campbell.

That will be true, of course, only if Game 4 ends sooner than Game 1, which lasted past midnight until Kansas City won in the 14th inning.