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| Saltillo's remodeled Estadio Francisco I. Madero |
The
LMB Assembly of Presidents held a videoconference early last week to
go over their latest options. Saltillo Saraperos president Cesar
Cantu told the El
Zocalo newspaper
that the 16 team owners and league president Horacio de la Vega
conferred with Mexican health authorities, who offered advice
regarding parameters for when and how the circuit would operate in
2020. According to Cantu, each state with an LMB franchise may make a
decision on what kind of events with large gatherings would be
allowed (more on that in a paragraph).
Cantu
said the Liga is now eyeing an August start, four months after the
loop's five-month regular had been slated to begin. Baseball writers
south of the border have speculated that the LMB would play a 51-game
season, but it would be hard to do that and play a full eight-team,
three-stage postseason without stretching well into the winter
Mexican Pacific League season, which is tentatively set to open on
October 12.
For
a short time, there was a question of how many LMB teams might take
the field. Coahuila governor Miguel Angel Riquelme last week
announced that there would be no more "massive" events in
his state through at least September 15 and possibly the end of a
year as a preventive response to the Wuhan virus. "We are going
to spend many months taking care of sanitary measures," Riquelme
was quoted as saying in Puro
Beisbol.
Such
a measure would affect the champion Acereros, Saltillo Saraperos and
Union Laguna Algodoneros. Although there may be options of playing
home games in empty ballparks or all games away from their respective
homes, Mexican League teams rely on ticket, concessions and ballpark
advertising revenue to survive financially and the potential of the
three teams simply closing down until 2021 to minimize losses was not
off the table. Riquelme backtracked on his statement one day later.
The
LMB office had not issued a public comment to that point, perhaps
because president de la Vega was trying to dislodge his heart from
his throat, but the threat served to heighten the vulnerability of
many cash-strapped Liga franchises who lack funds to field a team
without recouping the expenses with ballpark income. The bottom line
is that the longer it takes for the Mexican League to put its product
on the field, the harder it's going to be for the 95-year-old loop to
schedule any kind of season in 2020, however abbreviated. As we'll
see later, one prominent baseball columnist is calling for the Liga
to not play until next year. He won't be the last.
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| Culiacan averaged 15,000+ in attendance in 2019-20 |
There
has been some debate over the use of imports in both leagues,
particularly in the Mexican League, where budget shortfalls make
bringing in more-expensive players from the United States a fiscal
risk to many teams. Such concerns are not as acute in the Mex Pac,
where nearly 10,000 people attended each game last winter (a higher
average than any minor league in the hemisphere), but some players
who've crossed the border to play winterball in the past may be
hesitant to do so if high Wuhan virus concerns in Mexico continue.
LIGA
NORTE CONSIDERS WINTER MOVE; NEW BAJA LOOP COMING?
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| 2019 LNM champions San Luis Algodoneros |
During
a recent interview posted on the La Paz Delfines Facebook page, LNM
president Jorge Rivera said he has not ruled out converting the Liga
Norte into a winterball circuit. While stating that his own
preference would be to remain a summer league, he noted that economic
conditions created by the pandemic might make a move to later in the
year more prudent, if not outright necessary. Although Rivera said he
would prefer to return to the LNM's traditional April-July schedule
in 2021, the changing landscape of baseball in the northwest corner
of the country might make a permanent move to a winter schedule more
attractive to him and Liga Norte owners.
The
LNM, which is considered Class AA within the Mexican baseball system,
was dealt a severe blow following their 2018 season when the Mexican
League withdrew its official support, along with the player
affiliations and 40,000 pesos per team subsidies that came with it.
While Liga Norte teams were able to cobble together affiliations with
LMB teams last summer, the loss of both their official designation as
an LMB "developmental" league and extra cash flow hurt. The
LNM fought their way through the 2019 campaign with five teams and
had announced expansion to Otay (a suburb of Tijuana), where the
Industralies were expected to play in 2020.
Then,
after the first of the year, the Liga Norte was dealt a couple of
body blows that will be difficult to recover from. The first was the
Wuhan virus itself, of course, which has caused baseball across
Mexico to shut down and created uncertainty as to when it will be
allowed to resume. The second blow, the resurrection of the Sonora
Professional Baseball League (or Liga Sonora), may have more longterm
implications for the LNM, which itself broke away from the original
Northern Sonora League in 2012. The LNS survived two summers before
shutting down in 2014 while the LNM carried on, but the revived Liga
Sonora appears to be coming back with a vengeance. Leaders were in
talks with LMB president Horacio de la Vega earlier this year about
affiliation agreements and two of their proposed eight franchises
appear to be current LNM teams, the 2019 Liga Norte champion San Luis
Algodoneros and Caborca Reds.
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| La Paz' Estadio Arturo C. Nahl reopened in 2019 |
The
Liga Norte may face a potential challenger in winter baseball. Editor
Fernando Ballesteros of Puro
Beisbol reports
that businessmen representing the proposed Southern California League
(or Liga Sudcaliforniana) approached the Mexican Pacific League
earlier this year inquiring about an affiliation agreement of their
own. The director of municipal sports in La Paz, Guillermo Ortalejo,
reportedly already has that city's Estadio Arturo C. Nahl (home of
the LNM Delfines) in mind for games this winter, but Ballesteros
writes that while the LMP certainly could use a new in-season source
of replacement players, leaders there were not prioritizing the new
league. One potential outcome is a merger of sorts between the Liga
Norte and the upstarts, who may need each other more than either
might be willing to admit.
BENCOMO:
"MEXICAN LEAGUE CONDEMNED TO STOP IN 2020"
Every year, most teams in the Mexican Baseball League announce that they lost money by operating their ball clubs.
Perhaps
the Sultanes, Tijuana and maybe Diablos could boast of having "won"
a little in the last two seasons, but they are profits that are
reinvested to continue giving baseball to their loyal fans.
Mexican
teams depend on three main factors to stay afloat: advertising, box
office and concessions (sale of beer, food, souvenirs).
On
some occasions they have depended on the great fortunes of their
owners, for whom spending on their team was like taking a cat's hair.
But those times seem to be over.
With
the Covid 19 pandemic, the national (and world) economy has plummeted
and many companies have closed, many people have lost their jobs, and
business sales have fallen, so advertising has started to drop out of
the screens, radio, newspapers, etc.
Without
advertising and with the only option to start a mini season with
empty stadiums, what is the point of playing the 2020 season of the
LMB?
For
the record, I am not being insensitive, but realistic.
I
am sure that all the LMB executives want to carry out the
campaign and I applaud them. But given the country's conditions,
which businessman wants to go and throw millions of pesos in the
trash right now?
Closing
the offices and thinking of returning stronger in 2021 would be the
healthiest thing for Mexican summer baseball. It is true, the big
losers are baseball players, stadium workers, chroniclers and all the
businesses that depend on baseball activity, such as vendors of bats,
balls, uniforms, etc.
Journalist
David Medrano published last May 8 in the newspaper Récord
that Mexican soccer would lose 2.5 billion pesos (US$108.7 million)
if its 2020 season does not end. But it will lose 800 million
(US$34.8 million) when playing without people in the seats. Can you
imagine how much money a packed house generates at Estadio
Universitario to watch the Liga MX Tigres play?
Soccer
is a much better business than baseball in Mexico, so that's why it's
in their best interest to lose money now to try to get it back in the
next tournaments.
 |
| Hitazo.com editor Hector Bencomo |
And
not to think that the government will provide money to save the
season...it would be foolish now that attention should focus on the
health sector, where there are still deficiencies.
And
that is the panorama that we see from here to August or September. In
Nuevo León, they expect the peak of infected for mid-June. Massive
events in many states will be banned for months, leaving little room
for the LMB to even aspire to start its season.
If
you rush me a little, the Mexican Pacific League will have to take
out the calculator because perhaps in October there will also be no
permits for the public to attend massive events.
They
will also be subject to the parity of the dollar against the peso,
which would make them think of a season with fewer foreigners or to
outright play with pure Mexican talent, something that would put
Guasave and Monterrey on the ropes, teams that just arrived in the
league who have not solidified their national base.
This
being the case, the LMB may do better to follow the wise advice to
"stay home" and return to 2021 with more force than ever.
Remember that I am telling you this first of all, much to my regret.
What
do you think?
#hitazo
#hectorbencomo
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