Blue Jays can't play play in Toronto - Buffalo it is

[Marc the Habs Fan]

The Blue Jays have been denied approval by the Canadian government to play in Toronto amid the coronavirus pandemic.

An official familiar with the matter told The Associated Press Saturday the federal government has denied the request. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak ahead of the announcement.

The team had been given clearance by city and provincial governments to play regular-season games at Rogers Centre and was awaiting approval from Canada’s federal government.

MLB needed an exemption to a requirement that anyone entering Canada for nonessential reasons must self-isolate for 14 days. The U.S.-Canada border remains closed to nonessential travel until at least Aug. 21.

Allowing games in Toronto would have meant frequent back-and-forth travel to the U.S., where COVID-19 cases are surging. Canada has flattened the epidemic curve.

The NHL has received an exemption for its restart to the season, but that was a far simpler case because the games are restricted to two hubs — Edmonton and Toronto.

Buffalo seems like their fallback option.

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[MMC]

The body of that tweet is confusing in regards to the article. When I first just saw the tweet when I got it it made it sound like the Jays got approval to hold games in Toronto, but personally decided against it.

 

[GKJ]

Their schedule is set up where they could play a lot of home games in the opposing stadiums but that still sucks

 

[John Price]

 

[DoyleG]

Buffalo finally gets to be an MLB city.

 

[Canes]

Pretty understandable given the circumstances.

I do wonder if some Blue Jays players will opt out now because of this. If you're an established player do you really want to play in a different city than you live in and play in some minor league stadium for a fraction of your original salary?

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

As a Canadian, this makes me really happy

 

[Mightygoose]

This was the right call and glad the Feds didn't let this linger too much longer.

I guess they'll be in Buffalo if the Star Tweet above is correct. Otherwise Dunedin could work too.

 

[GreytWun]

Their schedule is set up where they could play a lot of home games in the opposing stadiums but that still sucks

they also play a bunch of games against Miami and Tampa. No thanks.

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Pretty understandable given the circumstances.

I do wonder if some Blue Jays players will opt out now because of this. If you're an established player do you really want to play in a different city than you live in and play in some minor league stadium for a fraction of your original salary?

The Jays players were well aware that if they were granted the exemption by the Federal Government, they were going to be stuck in a hotel for all their time in Toronto in 2020. They could not leave that hotel (which is in the Rogers Centre) under any circumstances since they would never have a homestand long enough to meet the 14 day quarantine rules. They were not going to be living in their houses/condos.

 

[Spikey]

Blue Jays will probably play in Buffalo. Right decision by the federal government.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Fine by me. Will actually be cool to see televised mlb games at Coca Cola field in Buffalo. Logistically going to be waaaay easier to make this happen even though I think going ahead with the mlb and nhl seasons is going to be a disaster anyway.

 

[BMOK33]

What a moronic decision. They couldn’t have said this weeks ago? And there’s a total of 9 teams coming there with maybe 50-75 people who will do nothing but go to the hotel and the park. The overreactions continue from uninformed idiots. Leave it to brilliant Trudeau to make smart moves

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

What a moronic decision. They couldn’t have said this weeks ago? And there’s a total of 9 teams coming there with maybe 50-75 people who will do nothing but go to the hotel and the park. The overreactions continue from uninformed idiots. Leave it to brilliant Trudeau to make smart moves

Trudeau is a dummy but this is the right move. There’s no good reason to open up the border for this. Jays can play in Buffalo and things will be fine.

 

[GreytWun]

What a moronic decision. They couldn’t have said this weeks ago? And there’s a total of 9 teams coming there with maybe 50-75 people who will do nothing but go to the hotel and the park. The overreactions continue from uninformed idiots. Leave it to brilliant Trudeau to make smart moves

I am not even a Trudeau fan but the Federal governments job is to protect it's citizens, Baseball comes way after that on their agenda. Can you imagine Baseball started up and in the first couple weeks an flare up happened there would be outage against the Federal government with a lot of people pointing to them allowing this regardless if it was from any Baseball player.

 

[Unholy Diver]

I am not even a Trudeau fan but the Federal governments job is to protect it's citizens, Baseball comes way after that on their agenda. Can you imagine Baseball started up and in the first couple weeks an flare up happened there would be outage against the Federal government with a lot of people pointing to them allowing this regardless if it was from any Baseball player.

They are making the smart move, if I was Canadian I wouldn't want Americans coming and going weekly into my country, half of our government officials and citizens still think this is all a hoax

 

[EpochLink]

What a moronic decision. They couldn’t have said this weeks ago? And there’s a total of 9 teams coming there with maybe 50-75 people who will do nothing but go to the hotel and the park. The overreactions continue from uninformed idiots. Leave it to brilliant Trudeau to make smart moves

The Jays would’ve played to covid infected Florida and travel back to Canada, they could catch something and spread it.

The government is protecting its people, people before sports. What a bad take.

 

[DueDiligence]

What a moronic decision. They couldn’t have said this weeks ago? And there’s a total of 9 teams coming there with maybe 50-75 people who will do nothing but go to the hotel and the park. The overreactions continue from uninformed idiots. Leave it to brilliant Trudeau to make smart moves

MLB are the morons in this case. They have come up with a stupid plan for the season which flies in the face of logic.

 

[The Head Crusher]

The problem is the two likely candidates are not ideal situations (not that any of this is ideal). Buffalo is fine for AAA, it the lighting and from what I have read facilities are not up to MLB standards. Especially for night games given that 24 of our 30 “home” games are at night. Dunedin is also not ideal because of the COVID spike in Florida.

I would like to purpose a 3rd site, the Field of Dreams in Iowa. MLB built that field to host the White Sox and Cardinals series this summer. Even though it leaves the eastern area it is a MLB facility that could be used. Just need to work out the living arrangements.

 

[Jaguar God]

They are making the smart move, if I was Canadian I wouldn't want Americans coming and going weekly into my country, half of our government officials and citizens still think this is all a hoax

To be fair, the person you replied to most likely thinks we are all overreacting.

 

[Advanced stats]

Apparently discussions are being made with Pittsburgh as a viable option for a stadium.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

As a Canadian, this makes me really happy

How come?

If I'm mlb, I just blackout all Jays games in Canada lol

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

They are making the smart move, if I was Canadian I wouldn't want Americans coming and going weekly into my country, half of our government officials and citizens still think this is all a hoax

A handful of rightwingers and a small portion of their cult following is hardly half.

 

[Spikey]

The Jays players should actually be probably happy they are playing home games in the states, atleast they won't have to stay quarantine in a hotel the whole time they are free to do whatever.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

How come?

If I'm mlb, I just blackout all Jays games in Canada lol

Yeah I am sure Rogers would be all for that.