Charlotte Knights are a contender to host Toronto Blue Jays’ MLB home games in 2020
The Charlotte Knights and Toronto Blue Jays have spoken about Toronto playing some regular-season home games in Charlotte this season.
The Knights released a statement about the situation Monday afternoon, saying: “The Toronto Blue Jays organization is aware that Truist Field, home of the Charlotte Knights, could become available for games should the need arise. There have been no further communications between the two parties since early last week.”
Other and likely stronger possibilities for Toronto include playing home games in Buffalo, home of the Blue Jays’ Triple-A affiliate, or sharing a major-league park with another team such as the Pittsburgh Pirates or Baltimore Orioles. Charlotte is a contender because Truist Field — which changed its name last month from BB&T Ballpark — is widely viewed as one of the finest minor-league parks in the country.
“I think Charlotte is an option, but there are several other options ahead of it,” Dan Shulman, who does TV play-by-play for the Blue Jays and also is well-known for his ESPN TV work with college basketball partner Jay Bilas, said in an interview with The Observer. “From what I heard on Monday, Pittsburgh or Baltimore may be the most likely landing spots for Toronto. Some of the Blue Jays’ home schedule would need to be restructured in that case — they might be the ‘home team’ at some visiting stadiums. If they can’t work it out with Pittsburgh or Baltimore, then it sounds like Buffalo, although the lighting would have to be augmented there. It sounds very much like the Toronto players want to play every game at a major-league ballpark, one way or the other.”
Shulman had mentioned Charlotte as a possibility for Blue Jays’ home games Saturday night on an ESPN broadcast, igniting hope in Charlotte-area fans who have long wanted an MLB team to come to the Queen City.
“I haven’t been to that park, but I understand it’s beautiful and fairly new,” Shulman said of Truist Field. “I never said anything like Charlotte was going to get this, though. I mentioned Charlotte as one of several possibilities. don’t think Charlotte has a zero percent chance, but it’s a lower percentage than some of these other options.”
The Blue Jays were told Saturday that Canada’s federal government had denied their request to play the team’s home games in 2020 in Toronto. Marco Mendicino, Canada’s immigration minister, told The Associated Press that frequent travel back and forth from the U.S., where COVID-19 cases are spiking in many states, was the primary issue.
While the NBA and the NHL are holding their playoffs in hub cities — the city of Toronto is actually one of the hosts for NHL playoff games — Major League Baseball plans to play its 60-game, pandemic-shortened regular season in MLB teams’ home ballparks.
But no spectators are allowed to any of those games. So any potential Blue Jays’ contests played in Charlotte would not be open to fans.
The other 29 MLB teams are all located in the U.S. and will host games as usual when the season begins July 23. Toronto is scheduled to open its season on the road at Tampa Bay July 24 and to host its first home game on July 29, although MLB may tinker with the schedule.
The Blue Jays were scheduled to take a flight to Boston Monday night, Shulman said, and the Toronto players had been told that they won’t be returning to Canada at least until the MLB regular season concludes in late September.
According to an AP report, MLB was asking for exemption to the current requirement that anyone entering Canada for non-essential reasons must self-isolate for 14 days. The U.S.-Canada border also remains closed to non-essential travel until at least Aug. 21.
The Blue Jays went 67-95 in 2019, but do have several intriguing young prospects. A decision from the Blue Jays as to where Toronto will play its 2020 home games is expected soon.
This story was originally published July 20, 2020 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Charlotte Knights are a contender to host Toronto Blue Jays’ MLB home games in 2020."
