"Eighty percent of our annual revenue comes within the 81 home games that take place during a baseball season," MoMo's owner Scott Morton told SFGATE by phone in late September. His bar on King Street opened in 1998, two years before the Giants moved downtown. It is one of the few businesses near the ballpark that is older than the ballpark.
A slow winter is normal at that corner. What has changed this year is how long the winter might last. Major League Baseball's collective bargaining agreement expires on December 1. If the owners lock the players out, the blocks around Oracle Park face a slow season with no fixed end. The ballpark itself has a full November, and the neighborhood's next opening is a bakery that does not depend on baseball at all.
Six Months the Corridor Already Plans For
SFGATE counts more than a dozen restaurants and bars that rely on game days in the small area between 2nd and 4th streets and King and Howard streets. The Embarcadero has more. The places named in that reporting include MoMo's, Frankie's Java House, Merkado, Bar Via and Underdogs Cantina.
Pat Belding, manager and part-owner of Frankie's Java House, described his business calendar plainly:
"That is our whole season. I mean, our season goes around the baseball season. It's not around the Warriors that are just a quarter mile away, or, you know, Fleet Week, or anything else along Embarcadero. It's just all about Giants or activities at Oracle Park."
He said this to SFGATE in September. A Warriors home game at Chase Center, a quarter mile away, does not bring in the same crowd. Neither does a big week on the waterfront.
Morton told SFGATE that the offseason means less foot traffic, so MoMo's cuts hours and staff. When the Giants miss the playoffs, that stretch "already lasts six months." The Giants did not reach the postseason this year, so that six-month stretch is already under way. Businesses can plan for it because opening day in the spring usually gives them an end date.
Why December 1 Changes the Math
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on October 4 that the agreement between the league and the MLB Players Association expires December 1. The paper said a lockout by the owners is likely to follow. The main dispute is the owners' proposed salary cap, which the players' union opposes. The same report said a long lockout could cost game-day workers their shifts and hurt restaurants near ballparks.
A lockout is a possibility, not a certainty. On the day this is published, Thursday, November 5, the deadline is still almost four weeks away. The 2022 precedent shows why the date matters even so. In that lockout, a deal was not reached until early March. All the games were played, but the first week of the season was moved to the end of the year.
That timing explains the strain. A lockout does not cancel games right away. It leaves them in doubt. SFGATE noted that businesses near the ballpark cannot easily switch to something else, because they will not want to miss games that might still be played. Morton put the risk in terms of months. Each month a lockout adds a seventh, eighth or ninth month to a slow season that already runs six.
For anyone who lives within a few blocks of the ballpark, the date to watch is December 1. Spring training is a later and less certain marker.
The Ballpark Keeps Its Own Winter Calendar
Oracle Park's winter events are already on sale, and none of them depend on the labor talks.
| Date | At Oracle Park and nearby | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Through Sunday, November 8 | The Ballpark Back 9 presented by Zoox | Nine holes played across the ballpark, from $99 plus fees |
| Thursday, November 19, 5 to 8 p.m. | Waterfront Walkabout, Pier 14 to Pier 15 | Free evening of art and food, north of South Beach |
| November 21, 22, 28 and 29 | Holiday Photo Tours | Offered on only four dates |
| Tuesday, December 8 | Holiday Heroes | Wender Weis Foundation event at the ballpark |
| Daily, year-round | Public ballpark tours | 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., except on day-game dates |
The Ballpark Back 9 runs November 4 to 8, so it is under way as this is published. The ballpark becomes a nine-hole course, with tee boxes on several levels and greens in the outfield. Returning holes include the water feature, the Splash Hit Club and a Giants Dugout tee on the warning track. New this year is a course bar inside the Giants Clubhouse, and players also get into The Gotham Club, the park's private members' club. Player tickets start at $99 plus fees, and Tour Pro tickets start at $165. A $25 clubhouse-only pass lets non-golfers walk the course with their group.
The Giants' Holiday Photo Tours take two November weekends, the 21st and 22nd and then the 28th and 29th. The team lists them as available on only four dates this season. Holiday Heroes, the Wender Weis Foundation's holiday event for Bay Area children and families, is set for the ballpark on Tuesday, December 8. The regular daily public tours run year-round at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., except on day-game dates. The team says tour dates can change.
These events keep the park in use, but they draw golf foursomes, tour groups and holiday families in small numbers. That is very different from a sold-out crowd of baseball fans walking up King Street before a game. Even in November, the park's calendar does not give the bars across the street the kind of business Morton and Belding described.
An Opening That Does Not Need a Game Day
The neighborhood's next arrival is a café a few blocks up 2nd Street. La Kalidád, a Filipino-Californian café and bakery, was announced for 680 2nd St. It will have a mezzanine seating area, seasonal pastries and pies, and specialty drinks. When the Chronicle first reported it in July, the opening was expected "this fall." The paper's openings forecast, updated October 6, now lists the projected opening as December. No exact date has been set, and the timing has already moved once.
Nothing in La Kalidád's announced plans ties it to the Giants' schedule. If it opens in December as projected, it will do so in the same month the labor contract runs out.
The Waterfront Edges
North along the Embarcadero, the Port of San Francisco's Waterfront Walkabout holds its last 2026 evening on November 19, from 5 to 8 p.m. It is a free art-and-food event between Pier 14 and the Exploratorium at Pier 15. It sits north of South Beach, an easy walk along the water from Rincon Park.
South Beach Harbor, the Port's marina beside the ballpark, has one change worth knowing for anyone who arrives by boat. According to the Port, the South Guest Dock has been tentatively closed since October 14, 2026, until further notice. The harbor office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.
Piers 30–32, the long-stalled site on the southern Embarcadero, is still on hold. Under a revised agreement, the Port and Strada paused active negotiations for 18 months while they study construction, funding, regulatory and office-market options. No opening date has been set.
The next fixed dates for the blocks around Oracle Park are the last round of the Back 9 on Sunday, November 8, the start of the holiday tours on November 21, and the expiration of baseball's labor contract on Tuesday, December 1.
Heidi Rossi has watched the ballpark's busy and quiet seasons shape South Beach for as long as Oracle Park has stood on King Street. If you'd like to talk about what this winter means for your building, your block or a home you're thinking about nearby, Rossi Real Estate invites you to schedule a private consultation.
