Diario Libre reports that after a 20-year absence, Dominican fans could soon be able to watch a Major League Baseball game in the Dominican Republic.
While the announcement was made, there are not yet many details on the 2020 games. On Thursday, 20 June 2019 in New York City, at the end of one of three meetings that the baseball owners hold each year, Commissioner Rob Manfred told reporter James Wagner of The New York Times that next year there would be some pre-season games in the Dominican Republic.
One of the issues, as always, is money. Lots of money. In the United States, players are not paid during the pre-season. However, if they play overseas, each player gets US$5,000, and managers and clubhouse personnel get US$20,000. And this is for pre-season games.
If there were to be a regular season game, the pay scale goes up to US$15,000 per player in the Caribbean or Mexico or US$60,000 in Japan. Technical personnel get US$40,000. In pre-season, the overall cost would be US$700,000 but in the regular season, the cost would skyrocket to US$1,550,000.
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Diario Libre
24 June 2019