MLB, union float playing all games in empty stadiums in Arizona: report

Major League Baseball (MLB) could hold the entirety of the 2020 season at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ stadium in Phoenix without any fans attending if officials go through with a plan that has reportedly been discussed by top league officials and members of the MLB players’ union.

The Associated Press reported that the two groups are in talks about potential plans for the 2020 season, which is supposed to be already underway but has been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak that has swept across the U.S. and around the world.

One of the plans being discussed involved teams meeting at Chase Field in Arizona, where a number of teams have training facilities. The stadium features an artificial turf field and retractable roof, and according to a top sports talent agent, could theoretically host up to three games per day.

“It allows for immediacy of a schedule, where you might be able to begin it and televise it, provide Major League Baseball to America,” Scott Boras, president of the Boras Corporation, told the AP. “I think players are willing to do what’s necessary because I think they understand the importance of baseball for their own livelihoods and for the interest of our country and providing a necessary product that gives all the people that are isolated enjoyment.”

Boras added that the return of baseball would provide a sense of “normalcy” amid the coronavirus crisis, which has led dozens of states to issue stay-at-home orders and shutter nonessential businesses and schools.

“It gives them a sense of a return to some normalcy,” he said. “You talk to a psychologist about it and they say it’s it’s really good for a culture to have to have sport and to have a focus like that, where for a few hours a day they can take their minds off the difficult reality of the virus.”