On Tuesday, June 30, the High Point Rockers baseball team put out some sad news.
There will be no 2020 season for the team that just played its inaugural season last year.
A press release from the team states, “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, along with concerns for player, fan, and staff health and safety, the High Point Rockers announced today they will forego their 2020 professional baseball season with their counterparts in the Atlantic League in pursuit of other opportunities. The organization, in conjunction with the City of High Point and the Guilford County Division of Public Health, are actively working on a plan to re-open the stadium in efforts to create additional community events at the newly renamed Truist Point for the remainder of the year.”
According to team officials, one of the major considerations in the team’s decision was the travel quarantine mandate that the states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut issued last week. That mandate requires a 14-day quarantine for any travelers from states with a high level of coronavirus cases – including, as everyone knows by now, North Carolina.
The Rockers were scheduled to travel to New York to play the Long Island Ducks throughout an abbreviated season – but the new rules around the recent upswing in the virus nixed those plans.
Rocker’s Team President Pete Fisch said in the release that safety had to be the priority.
“The entire Rockers organization has worked tirelessly to provide a season of professional baseball at Truist Point this summer,” he stated. “After reviewing the options and the risks, the right decision was to not play this year. It is disappointing but our concerns for player, fan, and staff safety outweigh the potential benefits.”
“The quarantine requirement in New York put our schedule in jeopardy and would restrict our ability to play the Long Island club,” Fisch added. “There is no way around that.”
In recent months, since the virus hit the Rockers have been working with the Guilford County Division of Health to come up with a re-opening strategy. The team stated Tuesday that the process will continue in hopes of hosting community-minded events for the City of High Point and Piedmont Triad region.
Tell me again how much the new ballpark cost.
Wonder what a betting line would be that the Rockers will go broke before 2021, if they’re even allowed to reopen then.
Nido don’t care, though. He got taxpayers to pay for this thing, and he’ll take it over to repurpose as a football stadium for his Ivy League reject school.