The Texas Collegiate League, a wood-bat summer circuit for college players, is being expanded to include several minor league franchises, the league announced Thursday.
Five affiliated minor league teams will host newly created teams in the in a 30-game season that begins July 3. While the league is an amateur circuit, the news marks some of the first tangible plans for a return to professional baseball venues since the sport was largely shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The minor league organizations that will host TCL teams include two Triple-A clubs (San Antonio and Round Rock) and three from Double-A (Amarillo, Frisco and Tulsa). All but the Tulsa team is based in Texas, where current guidelines allow for outdoor stadiums to operate at 50% capacity.
The news release issued by San Antonio included a 25-page document detailing coronavirus procedures that will be in place at its home park, Wolff Stadium. The guidelines include:
The hiring of a supplementary cleaning crew to sanitize Wolff Stadium before, during and after events, with a particular focus on "high-touch" areas.
All stadium personnel will be required to wear masks at all times. Cleaning and concessions employees will wear gloves.
Hand sanitizing and washing stations will be created throughout the facility.
All transactions, including ticket purchasing, will be cashless.
All concession lines will be socially distanced, and fans will be able to order from their seats via text messaging.
Fan groups will be conducted to their seats by ushers, and seat assignments will be distributed in a pattern to ensure all groups are socially distanced from each other. At least two seats will separate all fan groups, and no fans from other parties will be seated directly in front of or behind anyone not among their group.
Face masks for fans will be "suggested" and anyone who fails to follow social distancing guidelines is subject to ejection.
Players and staff will arrive at the stadium in uniform and will not shower at the venue after the game.
Autographs will not be allowed.
Players and staff will have their temperatures taken upon arrival at the venue.
Anyone registering a temperature over 100 degrees will be sent home and will be tested for the coronavirus the next day
San Antonio president Burl Yarbrough said additional protocols are being developed, including what happens if a positive test is registered. An initial template was created by the recent College Summer Baseball Invitational, which was staged last week in College Station, Texas, and for which TCL president Uri Geva served as one of the organizers.
"We're still working out and figuring out what we're going to do," Yarbrough said. "It was great that [Geva] hosted that and we're in the process of getting with him and finalizing our plan. He had four teams of college kids flying in from all over the United States, and operated that tournament last week. Everything went well."
The announcement comes at a time when teams throughout the minor leagues are scrambling to find new revenue sources even as they hold out hope that at least some of the minor league season can be salvaged.
"We're all sitting here with these beautiful ballparks, ready to play some baseball," Yarbrough said. "We don't know when that might have happened. This opportunity is one that we felt was good for all of our cities. And we realize that college players didn't get their seasons in, so we wanted to offer them a chance to come play in some really nice ballparks."