“I’m a sports fanatic, I know where they are going to play: Florida, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Florida Marlins, look at the Atlanta team in Georgia,” Deputy Director of Public Health Howard Njoo said Friday when asked on the MLB application during a Covid briefing.
Mendicino said the government let the club know that Canada would not grant the league a National Interest Waiver for the regular season. “We wish the Blue Jays the best of luck,” he said.
The Jays had permission to prepare for the season in Toronto, preseason training that did not involve repeated cross-border trips.
Mendicino’s announcement noted that Canada has flattened the Covid-19 curve. There have been approximately 9,000 deaths in Canada, compared to 137,000 in the United States.
“Look where we are now, about 300 cases a day, but I think the success we have achieved is fragile,” Njoo said Friday in the context of the baseball plan. “As we’ve seen, it only takes a few sparks and we can easily go back to have many more cases.”
The National Hockey League was given permission to play its season in Canada because the league has created two central cities and will avoid cross-border travel, he explained.
The Blue Jays said the safety of fans and the community was always their top priority and thanked all levels of government for considering the plan. “We can’t wait until the day comes when we can play in front of our fans again on Canadian soil.”
The team said it is finalizing its plans for the season. The organization is believed to choose between Buffalo, New York and Dunedin, Florida.
