Oklahoma City Employers Prepare for
World Cup Hooky
The United States’ men’s soccer team plays Germany at 11 a.m. Thursday in
Brazil to try to clinch a World Cup berth in the globe’s premiere tournament.
Companies are bracing for many employers being absent with the game
during the work day.
Dressed in team colors, with
temporary tattoos of the U.S.
soccer crest adorning her cheek
and forearm, Raley Bennett sat
through a blizzard to watch the U.S.
men’s soccer team play a qualifying
match in Denver in March 2013.
Bennett, 28, of Edmond, followed
that up with trips to Kansas City
and Columbus, Ohio, to watch her
favorite boys in red, white and blue
clinch a World Cup berth.
S o t o d a y, t h e r e ’s n o w a y s h e ’s
going to let a little thing like her job
get in the way of watching when the
American team takes to the pitch
for their next big game.
An estimated 40 million U.S.
television viewers tuned in for
the United States’ first two World
Cup matches against Ghana and
Portugal, and excitement is high
for today’s match against Germany;
the possibility to advance to the
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next round of soccer ’s premiere
tournament is on the line.
But an 11 a.m. start time has some
soccer fans adjusting their work
schedules, making up excuses or
downright lying to make sure they
are out of the office, in some cases
swapping a suit and tie for a jersey
and face paint.
“I will be off for every single match,”
said Bennett, who does social work
for a private company and can set
her own hours. “Guaranteed. I
wouldn’t miss it for anything.”
Projections are that today’s twohour “break” during the workday to
watch the game will cost employers
nationwide about $390 million in lost
wages, according to Challenger,
Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicagobased employment consulting
firm. By comparison, the NCAA
basketball tournament, which runs
over several days, costs American
businesses about $1.2 billion. In
reality, there’s probably ver y little
employers can do to make soccer
fans focus on their work, said
company CEO John Challenger.
“Prepare for the fact that many
workers could be taking an
e x t e n d e d l u n c h o n T h u r s d a y, ”
Challenger said. “Other employers
will probably notice a significant
drop off in Internet speeds, as
bandwidth is consumed by multitasking employees attempting to
get work done while streaming the
game at their desks.”
In the Oklahoma City metro,
the match is expected to cost
employers about $2.3 million in lost
wages, according to a chamber of
commerce official.
While the drop in productivity might
worry some employers, others are
embracing the once-every-four-year
tournament.
Reese Travis, chief executive officer