Arizona leaders express concern about hosting Giants, A’s and others
With about three weeks remaining until pitchers and catchers are set to arrive in Arizona, nine local politicians and the executive director of the Cactus League are urging Major League Baseball to delay the start of spring training.
Citing Maricopa County’s high coronavirus infection rate and concerns about providing “a safe, secure environment” for MLB clubs, Arizona-based leaders including Scottsdale Mayor Dave Ortega and Mesa Mayor John Giles asking MLB in letter Friday to consider waiting to open Cactus League play until the region’s COVID-19 situation improves.
The San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s are among the 15 major league teams that hold spring training workouts in Maricopa County, where more than 440,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 6,800 people have died after contracting the novel coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic. Mesa mayor John Giles said the letter’s intent “states the obvious.”
“If it’s possible to delay spring training by a little bit and allow the vaccine to do its work so we can see some mitigation of the virus, that would be our preference,” Giles said in a phone conversation. “We love spring training, but it doesn’t trump the need for strict policies to protect public health.”
The letter was first published by 12 News in Phoenix.
The Giants have been planning to begin spring workouts at Scottsdale Stadium during the third week of February while the A’s are slated to hold their first workouts at Hohokam Park in Mesa around the same time.
In a letter to commissioner Rob Manfred, Cactus League executive director Bridget Binsbacher and politicians from cities around Maricopa County that host teams for spring training cited an alarming projection from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation as the basis for asking MLB to consider pushing back its spring timetable.
Maricopa County locals call those spring months “Christmas in March” given the economic impact of the some 1.5 to 2 million tourists spring training attracts yearly. While officials are bracing for the inevitable financial hit, they say a one month delay’s positive impact could benefit the county two fold.
“Our motivation behind suggesting a delay primarily has to do with health and the spread of the vaccine,” Giles said. “And if we take a month to get a little bit ahead of the virus, that might allow us to have some fans in the stands.”
The projection expects an estimated 9,712 daily COVID-19 infections in Arizona on February 15 with the model anticipating 3,072 daily infections on March 15.
MLB released a statement Monday in response to the letter, saying the league will continue to monitor the COVID-19 environment.
“As we have previously stated publicly, we will continue to consult with public health authorities, medical experts and the Players Association whether any schedule modifications to the announced start of spring training and the championship season should be made in light of the current COVID-19 environment to ensure the safety of the players, coaches, umpires, MLB employees and other gameday personnel in a sport that plays every day,” the league said.
Despite health and safety concerns, the letter indicates a Cactus League task force is determining feasible ways for teams to sell tickets to spring training games. The Arizona Coyotes of the NHL are currently hosting fans for games at a reduced capacity indoors at their arena in Glendale while the Arizona Cardinals also hosted a limited number of fans at their domed stadium during the NFL season.
The Cactus League itself cannot impose restrictions on Major League Baseball that would prevent teams from holding spring training in Arizona during February, but local officials can conceivably adopt a health order similar to the one in Santa Clara County that prevents teams from competing locally.
Since Santa Clara County implemented a health order banning sports on November 28 and since that time, a handful of Bay Area teams including the San Francisco 49ers and San Jose Sharks shifted their operations to Maricopa County. With COVID-19 infection rates remaining high and the reality that 15 MLB teams are preparing to operate within the region for upward of six weeks, Arizona leaders have joined together to express concern before players, coaches and staffers begin arriving in the area.