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Leagues and Governing Bodies

Venezuela's 'Economic Meltdown' Hurting Country's Top Baseball League

Venezuela’s "economic meltdown, which has produced shortages of food and medicine, near hyperinflation, and a rise in crime, is now squeezing the country’s national sport," according to John Otis of the London GUARDIAN. Rising ticket prices, falling incomes and "the fear of getting mugged while leaving ballparks after dark have reduced attendance by about half" for the Caracas Lions and the other seven teams in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP). Due to "government exchange controls, baseball clubs are struggling to secure" the U.S. dollars to import bats and gloves and sign overseas talent. The collapse of the bolívar, the national currency, means that many Venezuelan players earn the equivalent of "just $300 a month." The situation is "so dire" that LVBP officials considered canceling the '17-18 season, which runs from October to January. It was "only saved after the state-run oil company stepped in" with a $10M lifeline. LVBP President Juan José Ávila said, "When we play and the games are broadcast on TV and radio, that inspires kids to take up baseball. We create baseball fever. That’s the most important thing we do." The government bailout "has prompted criticism" that President Nicolás Maduro’s administration "should direct such largesse to more pressing needs." But Ávila and others "argue that canceling the season would have thrown thousands of players, team officials, food vendors and stadium security guards out of work." Caracas newspaper El Nacional sports columnist Ignacio Serrano said, "It would have made no sense. Baseball is a business that produces a lot of jobs." The sport was introduced in Venezuela in the 1890s and the country is now a "baseball powerhouse." Under Maduro, professional and amateur sports teams "have found it hard" to secure food and equipment as well as airfares to get to games and overseas tournaments. They "must also fend off criminals." Last year, highway bandits "stopped a bus carrying one of Venezuela’s football clubs and made off with cash, laptops, uniforms, cleats and balls." Team buses "are now flanked by police escorts." Some sports officials "have thrown in the towel." Nearly two dozen baseball academies that were set up in Venezuela in the '90s and '00s by U.S. major league teams to nurture talent "have closed." As for the fans, "many say that buying baseball tickets, which cost less than a dollar, takes a back seat to larger concerns like securing milk and antibiotics" (GUARDIAN, 11/2).

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