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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
May 18, 2020
AMID VENUE DOUBTS, CARIBBEAN SERIES TIX GO ON SALE
Even though the organization that
oversees the Caribbean Series has threatened to move the event
elsewhere in
2021 if an ongoing dispute involving the ballpark where it would be
played
isn't resolved soon, the host Mazatlan Venados have begun selling prime
tickets
for the weeklong Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball.
Last week, the Venados announced
prices for seven-day tickets in prime seating at Estadio Teodoro
Mariscal, with
five days of doubleheaders between Sunday, January 31 through Thursday,
February 4 for first round games preceding a semifinal twinbill on
Friday,
February 5 and the title game on Saturday, February 6.
The highest prices for the 13-game
event are 28,600 pesos (US$1,187) for Deluxe Supreme seats in the
ballpark's
lower level behind home plate. The next tier involves Diamond seats,
where
patrons will pay 22,580 pesos (US$936) per lower-level seat from above
both
dugouts into shallow left and right fields, respectively. Finally,
there are
the Platinum seats at 19,570 pesos (US$811), which span all the second
level of
seats above the interior walkway from shallow left past home plate and
into
shallow right right. No tickets for upper deck, foul territory or
outfield
seats have been put up for sale. Online ticket broker Boletomovil
says
seats can be reserved for a deposit of 1,000 pesos (US$41), with the
remainder
to be paid by October 15.
In comparison, when Mexico hosted
the 2018 Serie del Caribe in Guadalajara, the top price for a
weeklong
ticket was 19,500 (US$809) for lower level seats between third and
first bases.
While putting premium CS tickets on
sale in May would be standard operating procedure for both the Mexican
Pacific
League and the Venados, the Caribbean Professional Baseball
Confederation
(COPABE) recently issued a press release stating that if the ongoing
dispute
between the Venados and City of Mazatlan is not resolved in short
order, the
Caribbean Series could potentially moved from the Sinaloa city to
another
venue. Citing various violations of the ballpark lease, officials from
the City
last month physically evicted the Venados from Estadio Teodoro
Mariscal,
placing padlocks on the facility, and terminated a concessions contact
team
owner Jose Antonio Toledo and his family have held since 1980.
Although the imbroglio is being
called "political" on several Mexican baseball websites, where
writers expect things to be resolved in time, a May 12 story on El
Fildeo
was headlined, "Don't Buy the Tickets Yet!" and detailed how COPABE
will convene a meeting next month where if a signed letter from the
Mazatlan
City Council granting the Venados (and, by proxy, the LMP and COPABE)
full
control over the stadium for the Caribbean Series is not presented, the
tournament may be moved to another city.
WORLD
BASEBALL CLASSIC CANCELLED FOR 2021
Major League Baseball has cancelled
next year's World Baseball Classic and a New York Post writer
says it
may not be played until 2023. The cancellation was first reported by
Enrique
Rojas on ESPN Deportes.
Joel Sherman of the Post says
the WBC may be moved to 2023 amid the current Wuhan virus panic. The
2021
edition had been scheduled for March 9-23 with games in Taiwan, Tokyo,
Phoenix
and Miami. The postponement comes as no surprise, according to Rojas,
because
WBC qualifier events in March were called off indefinitely as MLB and
other
baseball organizations throughout the world placed their seasons on
hiatus in
reaction to the spread of the Wuhan virus. "It's not a priority right
now," a source reportedly told Rojas.
Despite their close proximity to
source country China, however, Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball
League
opened their season on April 11 as scheduled while the Korea Baseball
Organization
began their schedule a few weeks later. Both circuits played early
games in
front of empty stands before the CPBL allowed up to 1,000 spectators
per
opening recently and are poised to increase that number to 2,000 live
fans
soon.
The delay of the World Baseball
Classic puts the future of the event in doubt, Rojas says. He notes
that the
event was negotiated in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement
between MLB
(which oversees the WBC) and the MLBPA players union. However, the CBA
will
expire in December 2021 and the WBC would have to be renegotiated.
The two sides are at odds over an
MLB proposal to slice player salaries in half because a proposed
shortened
season that would begin in July would include about half of the 162
games
usually played in a full schedule. American League 2018 Cy Young Award
winner
Blake Snell of Tampa Bay articulated, "Y'all gotta understand, man, for
me
to go, for me to take a pay cut, is not happening...No, I gotta get my
money.
I'm not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that's just the way it is
for
me." Snell signed a guaranteed five-year, $50 million contract
extension
last year that is scheduled to pay him $7.6 million in 2020.
Mexico has played in all four
previous World Baseball Classics (2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017), winning
seven of
18 games, reaching the second round twice and defeating the United
States in
both 2006 and 2013. Cancellation of next year's WBC means National Team
manager
Juan Gabriel Castro will devote his full attention for the Verdes
Grande
on the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, which were rescheduled for next year
after
being postponed for 2020 due to the Wuhan virus.
FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT BUYS BALLPARKS IN OBREGON, HERMOSILLO
"Psssst...hey, buddy...wanna
buy a used ballpark?"
While it's certain that such a sales
pitch never took place, Mexico's federal government has indeed
purchased a pair
of former longtime Mexican Pacific League facilities for a combined
1.075
billion pesos (US$44.2 million) with an eye to using them as baseball
academies
in the future. Lots of numbers and currency conversions coming in this
story,
so be prepared:
According to Septima Entrada,
Sonora's State Treasury Secretary Raul Navarro announced that Estadio
Hector
Espino in Hermosillo has been bought by federal agency Probeis
for 511.7
million pesos (US$21.4 million). The ballpark served as home to the LMP
Naranjeros between 1972 and 2012 before the team moved into the new,
state-of-the-art Estadio Sonora in 2013. The older facility, renamed in
1976
after Mexican baseball legend Hector Espino (who played 24 winters in
Hermosillo), seats 15,000 spectators and was the first ballpark in
Latin
America with a big screen and LED scoreboard, although the site has
fallen into
some disrepair. It was the site of six Caribbean Series tournaments and
hosted
a number of Arizona Diamondbacks exhibition games. The Naranjeros won
11 of
their 16 Mex Pac titles playing there.
Probeis previously agreed to
purchase Obregon's Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan for 548.7 million pesos
(US$22.9
million) in May of last year. Funded by the Sonora state government (as
was
Estadio Hector Espino) and opened in 1971, the 13,000-seat Estadio
Tomas Oroz
Gaytan was home of the Obregon Yaquis for 45 years until Estadio Yaquis
was
christened in 2016. The older ballpark was named after a longtime
baseball
figure who served as Sonora's state treasurer from 1967 until his death
in a
car accident in 1973. The Yaquis, who won six of their seven LMP
pennants
playing at their former stadium, have not been able to recreate the
magic at
their new ballpark, where high ticket prices, a less accessible
location and a
less-competitive team on the heels of Obregon's three-time pennant
winners
between 2011 and 2013 have resulted in lower attendance figures.
Probeis' stated purpose in
acquiring the older facilities is to create regional baseball schools,
in
keeping with their mission of developing domestic interest and players
for the
sport, but they are not necessarily getting a bargain in either case.
According
to an April 20 story in El Heraldo de Mexico, Estadio Tomas
Oroz Gaytan
was given an overall value of about 221 million pesos (US$9.2 million)
a year
ago, which suggests the government paid 347 million pesos (US$14.3
million)
more than the ballpark was worth. In an April 17 story, on the other
hand, El
Sol writer Enrique Hernandez says the federal government saved
nearly 118
million pesos (US$4.9 million) in the purchase of Estadio Hector
Espino, which
was valued last year at 626.5 million pesos (US$26.2 million).
When the numbers are added up, that's a net loss of 229 million pesos (US$9.6 million) for the feds, who are paying for the ballparks out of a National Infrastructure Trust Fund created by former president Felipe Calderon in 2008 as an investment vehicle in several areas, including the "operation and transfer of projects with social impact or economic profitability." Current president (and Mexico's Number 1 baseball fan) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is seeking to make the fund "disappear," Hernandez says, and this would appear to be at least one step towards reaching that goal.
