The New York Yankees would be helping to fund a US$50 million ballpark to be built in Benerito, La Romana, the Presidency announced yesterday. New York Yankees executive vice president and chief international officer Felix Lopez met with President Danilo Medina yesterday and announced the project would be part of a global US$120 million to be invested in the Latin Baseball Center where facilities for the Latin Baseball Hall of Fame would be located.
Also attending the press conference was project promoter, Robert Weil, founder and president of the Latin Baseball Hall of Fame; Joel Lithgow of the Yankees Academy in the country; Stan Meredith for the architectural firm DLR Group that is a specialist in designing ball parks, and Manuel Garcia, director of Latino affairs for the Yankees.
The stadium would be called the Latin Center Stadium and would be built in Benerito, La Romana, which is midway between Casa de Campo and Bayahibe/Dominicus hotel areas. Benerito is also less than a half an hour drive from dozens of hotels in the Punta Cana resort area on the Coral Expressway. Tourists would also be able to arrive on the dozens of flights from all over the world that arrive to the Punta Cana International Airport, the leading Caribbean airport.
The stadium would be built to Major League Baseball specifications so that MLB training games and the World Baseball Classic could be held there. As reported, the ballpark would have capacity for up to 35,000 fans.
A report in the New York Daily News, nevertheless, says that “the Yankees didn’t know anything about the project”.
http://www.presidencia.gob.do/comunicados/yankees-de-ny-construiran-proyecto-de-120-millones-de-dolares-dan-detalles-presidente
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/yankees-insider-50-million-project-news-yankees-article-1.1387805