CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela’s raucous, boozy and affordable baseball games have long provided respite from the growing gloom in the economically struggling country.
Now, a more than quadrupling of ticket prices is putting a damper on the national pastime, with the season kicking off this month to sometimes half-empty stadiums and featuring players who say their per diems don’t go far enough to buy lunch.
On a recent game night, hardcore baseball lovers celebrating what fans call Venezuela’s national religion filled about a third of the sooty stadium in central Caracas. The plaza of vendors outside had the ghost-town feel that has come to mark so much of Venezuelan life as the socialist country grapples with the world’s highest inflation and a severe shortage of imported goods. Average attendance at the 25,000-seat arena is down 25 percent for the first month of the season.
“It’s not just the ticket price; it’s the cost of everything you have to buy your family during the game,” said Luis Rojas, director of Caracas’ Estadio Universitario.
While most South Americans prefer soccer, Venezuela is crazy for baseball. It’s exported more players to Major League Baseball than any country aside from the Dominican Republic, including several who are playing for the Kansas City Royals in the World Series this week. During the offseason, major and minor league players often come to play in the oil-producing nation.