Who knows if the 2020 Major League Baseball season will happen, but if it does, it might have to operate similarly to other North American professional sports leagues.
With COVID-19 cases beginning to rise in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona, which have five MLB teams between them, the league is considering holding the season at a bubble site, according to The Wall Street Journal. For now, the plan is for teams to play in their home stadiums without crowds.
According to WSJ’s Jared Diamond and Ben Cohen, Southern California is being considered as one of the bubble sites.
“This person familiar with baseball’s thinking said that MLB could look at Southern California as a potential site,” they wrote. “The region has three MLB stadiums—Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Angel Stadium in Anaheim and Petco Park in San Diego—as well as several colleges with quality ballparks. It’s still unclear whether the “bubble” plan will become serious enough for the league to broach with the union.”
Shortly after the start of the season was delayed, putting all 30 teams in Arizona was considered a possibility. That then expanded to Arizona and Texas, but pushback from players about possibly leaving their families for months effectively shut down that idea.
Meanwhile, the NBA and NHL have plans to resume their games at neutral sites. The NBA is planning on playing at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla., while the NHL expects to play at two to-be-determined hubs.
