Ten years ago at work, Franlet Bencomo and Elbert Albarran bonded over baseball. The two haven’t missed an opening day game since.
In crumbling Venezuela, baseball—or pelota—season is just beginning. Hyperinflation has pulverized incomes and put the cost of tickets out of reach of most. Those who might afford tickets avoid the ballpark for fear of getting mugged. Many worry they won’t be able to get home amid a nationwide transportation crisis. More daytime games are being scheduled to encourage fans to venture out in daylight hours.
Bencomo and Albarran managed to get their opening day experience, though they made adjustments. They didn’t take their kids with them this year. They ate breakfast at home before heading out to watch their beloved Caracas Lions play. A hot dog inside the stadium costs more than 10 percent of the roughly $30 each makes per month.
“Now we have to eat beforehand, watch the game, and go straight home” says Bencomo. “There’s no other way.”
Venezuela’s eight professional teams are struggling. The government-run oil company PDVSA has stepped in two years in a row to fund the sport. It paid for everything from the cost of new baseballs to the salaries of a handful of foreign-born players on each team’s roster.
The crime that often follows dire poverty has hit stadiums too. During the offseason, vandals stripped bathrooms of metal faucets and field lighting of copper wire. They took anything potentially sellable that they could remove. Maracaibo’s Aguilas (Eagles) canceled their opener. Without lights, their diamond didn’t meet minimal safety standards for play.
Ticket prices change weekly—increasing to keep pace with rapid inflation in the collapsing economy. The International Monetary Fund forecasts Venezuela’s inflation could eventually reach 10 million percent!
From field crews to ticket scalpers to hot dog vendors, thousands of Venezuelan families depend on baseball to make a living. But that’s not all.
Baseball is “one of the few things that unites us,” says Ramon Aveledo, a former league president. He’s also a prominent member of the party that opposes Venezuela’s current socialist government.
The stadiums serve as a type of sanctuary where fans set aside their class and political differences and take relief from the country’s mounting hardship. Perhaps that’s why diehard fans like Bencomo and Albarran continue making sacrifices to attend.
(AP Photo: On opening day, October 12, baseball players and a smattering of fans in economically distressed Venezuela stand for their national anthem.)
