Dodgers, Rays not sold on neutral-site World Series
LOS ANGELES — Sports agent Scott Boras has long been a proponent of playing the World Series at a neutral site to give fans and corporate sponsors months in advance to plan travel to andpurchase tickets for games, turning baseball’s signature event into a multiple-day experience like the Super BowlorAll-Star Game.
“I think it would be a tremendous economic gain for our industry,” Boras said in a recent interview. “They can plan for it and have an international dynamic to it, corporate sponsorships andentertainment. People can go and be there for seven days and they get to see seven games.
“The Super Bowl has one game. Here you can have five to seven days of festivities, rock concerts, a postseason awards gala for CyYoungand most valuable player winners. You could have a true homerunderbyand invite all the big boys to it.”
Boras, who represents some of the game’s highest-paid players, having negotiated more than $1 billion in contracts over the offseason for stars such as Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon andStephenStrasburg,gothiswishthis year, butit wasn’t bychoiceordesign.
A pandemic forced Major League Baseball to move the World Series — andmostoftheNational Leagueplayoffs— to GlobeLifeFieldinArlington, Texas, with games in the new and luxurious retractable-roofed home of the Texas Rangers played before quarter-capacity crowds of about 11,500 each night.
While the action on the field was compelling, the games packed with made-for-television drama and the smaller crowds creating as much of a playoff atmosphere as they could, reviews of the neutral-site experience were mixed.
“It’s an interesting dynamic, for sure,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said. “This stadium is on the bigger side, and I think it takes a little bit to get used to. It feels like playoff baseball to me, but it is weird not playing at our home field.”
That was missing in this World Series: The electricity of 55,000 fans in DodgerStadiumrising to their feet in anticipation of a Walker Buehler strikeout or erupting at the crack of a bat of another Corey Seager home run; the sonic-like boomof42,000 in Tropicana Field reacting to another Randy Arozarena blast.
“I think this year’s been crazy, obviously,” Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw said after Game 6. “But we’re WorldSeries champ, and to get to say that and to get to be a part of it, it’s so special, no matter what, to be with this group of guys.
“The only thing that would have made it better was if we were at Dodger Stadium tonight to get to do it, whichis a bummerthatwe’re not.”
ThoughtheRayslosttheseriesthey too, felt like playing at a neutral site robbedtheir fans of arareexperience.