Due to Political Turmoil and Debt, Both Caracas Baseball Teams Are In Dire Need of a Stadium

Venezuela’s political situation has been a well-covered mess since the death of former President Hugo Chávez, but up until now it had not yet critically affected the nation’s most popular sport. That has changed, as El Universal reports that both of Caracas’s premier baseball teams, Leones de Caracas and Tiburones de La Guaira, are in search of a new stadium before opening day in October. Up until last season, both clubs paid rent to the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) in order to play their home games at the Estadio Universitario de Caracas, an arrangement that had worked before the country’s economy crashed in recent years. Due to the sharp drop in attendance and revenue, the clubs can no longer afford to pay the university, and in fact they still owe money from last year’s lease. The university, predictably, is not ok with that, and they have revoked access for both of the capital state’s teams. More…