MLB scraps plans to play in London in 2017
League officials look at renovated Oly Stadium as a possible venue
SAN DIEGO, July 12, (AP): London is not calling for Major League Baseball next year.
MLB has given up plans to play regular-season games in the British capital in 2017.
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in January that his staff was working hard at playing in London, and MLB officials looked at the renovated Olympic Stadium as a possible venue. The Red Sox likely would have been one of the teams involved.
“There was discussion about London early on,” union head Tony Clark said Monday. “Unfortunately there were a number of moving pieces related to London that shortened our window in an effort to try to find common ground on that happening, and we weren’t able to get it done in time.”
Dan Halem, MLB’s chief legal officer, said that ongoing collective bargaining negotiations and next spring’s World Baseball Classic kept the league from pursuing a London series for next year.
“We did not have enough time to work out all the details to play in London in 2017,” Halem said. “We continue to discuss international play with the union, including playing games in London.”
Clark also was non-committal about having players on 25-man active rosters made available for the 2020 Olympics, which will be held in Tokyo from July 24-Aug 9. The International Olympic Committee executive board voted last month to support a six-nation tournament that year in both baseball and women’s softball, and the full IOC is to vote in August.
Baseball became a medal sport for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but was dropped for the 2012 London Games and won’t be played this year in Rio de Janeiro. In 2008, only those not on 25-man big league rosters as of late June were allowed to compete — the US team included Jake Arrieta and Stephen Strasburg — both allstars this year.
“Is there an appreciation for the value of having baseball in the Olympics? Yes, there is,” Clark said. “Is there an appreciation for the season and how or if it could work with our active players? Yeah, there’s a conversation, but we run into the same roadblocks we always have.”
FOOTBALL
are unrenovated. The seats are sun-bleached. Cellphone reception is poor. There are no luxury boxes or club suites, and few handrails. The electrical and plumbing systems need repair. The concession stands have no kitchens, so they don’t offer much more than hot dogs and nachos. There are leaks in the locker rooms.
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Gets Updates for NFL Stopover
“It doesn’t have all the modern amenities, which they’re in the process of addressing,” says Bruce Warwick, the Rams’ director of operations. “It has challenges, but it also has charm. It has history.”
The visitors’ locker room is especially tiny — supposedly due to the late Raiders owner Al Davis, who sought every tactical advantage for the home team. During preseason, when teams have 90-man rosters, it’s hard to imagine how they’ll all fit inside.
For the most part, the Rams are taking the stadium as is. But the NFL does have two major requirements that must be addressed before the Dallas Cowboys arrive for the first preseason game, on Aug. 13.
The first is security. The Coliseum will install metal detectors at all entrances, which will require pushing the fence line further away from the stadium; the trick is to do this without creating massive queues to get in.
The second issue is lighting. USC — the stadium’s primary tenant — was planning on upgrading the incandescent lights in 2017. But with the arrival of the Rams, the school decided to go ahead and get the work done. The LED lights going up now will be brighter — making games look better on TV — and more energy efficient.
But other problems — perhaps most significant, parking — will go unaddressed. The Coliseum routinely handles big crowds for USC Trojans games, but many of the attendees are students who walk to the stadium. The property has only 5,031 spaces for vehicles, and around 70,000 people are expected for a Rams game. So planners expect to have to find parking for 23,000 cars.
USC will open its garages, and there are private lots in the neighborhood. When the Raiders called the Coliseum home, residents offered fans parking in their driveways and on their lawns. Planners are also hoping attendees make use of the Expo Line train or Uber and Lyft. Still, parking promises to be a mess.
A co-defendant in the drug and sexual assault case that brought down former NFL star Darren Sharper entered a plea agreement Monday, leaving one other man to face trial.
The agreement involving former restaurant worker Erik Nunez was confirmed by his defense attorney, Herbert Larson. The agreement had not been posted in court records by midday.
With Nunez out of the courtroom, jury selection began for the lone remaining defendant, former St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Licciardi. Opening statements are scheduled to begin Friday in a trial expected to feature Sharper as a star witness.
The federal case involved allegations that Licciardi, Nunez and Sharper gave drugs to women with the intent to rape them. Licciardi has pleaded not guilty.
Sharper has pleaded guilty or no contest to charges arising from allegations that he drugged and raped women in Arizona, Nevada, California and Louisiana. He faces a possible 15 to 20 years in prison.