Little League cancels all World Series and regional tournaments due to COVID-19 pandemic

For the first time since it began in 1947, Little League International canceled the Little League Baseball World Series on Thursday. Citing concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic, Little League President and CEO Stephen Keener announced on Facebook the annual tournament held in South Williamsport, as well as the six World Series and regional tournaments held in its other divisions, would be canceled.

The decision was made this week after consulting with officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and health officials from the other states where the regional tournaments and World Series were to be played.

"This pandemic is hideous," Keener said in an interview with the Sun-Gazette. "To try to put Little League in a context of being important during this seems rather inappropriate."

In a glimmer of optimism during an unprecedented announcement by Keener, he advised local leagues around the world to begin having their regular seasons when local and state officials determine it is OK in their area to have gatherings large enough to support games being played.

Keener even said during his address that if local leagues wanted to pick all-star teams and hold district, sectional and even state tournaments, it would be encouraged. The cancellation was only for regional tournaments and World Series.

In March, Little League had asked all local leagues to cease operations and activities until May 11 after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the suspension of all gatherings of 25 or more people for eight weeks. Keener said he held optimism since then of Little League eventually being able to hold the World Series this summer. But after meetings with the CDC, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine, the United States state department and health officials from various states, it became obvious there was going to be no way Little League could safely host its regional and World Series tournaments.

"We received a directive from Dr. Levine, who has been terrific and a great resource through all this, that we can't bring 150,000 unique people from all over the world to Central Pennsylvania at that time," Keener said. "There's just too much uncertainty. It made it pretty much impossible to consider holding the tournaments."

Because of the cancellation of the Little League World Series, Major League Baseball also canceled the MLB Little League Classic which was set to be played at Bowman Field on Aug. 23 between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles. It would have been the fourth Little League Classic played, and the first for either the Red Sox or Orioles.

A release from Little League on Thursday said Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have already agreed to return to Williamsport in 2021 for the Little League Classic. An email to Major League Baseball asking if the Red Sox and Orioles would return in 2021 was unreturned as of last night.

But the cancellation of both events figures to deliver a big blow to local businesses which traditionally do its best business of the year during the World Series. A story in last August's Sun-Gazette said regional businesses were expected to take in $32 million worth of revenue because of the World Series.

"The economic impact of losing the Little League World Series cannot be understated," Williamsport mayor Derek Slaughter said. "But given the nature of this international health crisis, I fully understand and support the extremely difficult decision Little League made to cancel the tournament."

Little League International is offering a refund or a credit on all affiliation fees already paid by local leagues this year. It would either refund the money to local leagues, or credit it for next year's season to give some financial relief to local leagues. The refunds and credits would account for $1.2 million returned to local leagues, Little League said.

Little League will also be putting out a directive for local leagues to follow on how to reopen their leagues once local and state officials deem their area is safe to play. Keener said he expects Little League will be spending the next couple months answering questions helping local leagues reopen so they can get some kind of season in.

"Obviously, it could be a much different atmosphere come July and August," Keener said. "Leagues are going to have thousands of questions about if they have a season, how are they going to do it?"

Little League is also going to lose the revenue it generates from ESPN's broadcasting of the seven World Series and various regional tournaments. Keener said the loss of concessions and merchandise at the Little League World Series complex will cost the organization a big part of its revenue.

"But that's a secondary concern right now," Keener said. "Fortunately, Little League has been managed over the years to be in position to hopefully be able to weather this storm and come back better."

Keener said in reports over the last couple weeks the World Series wouldn't be held in South Williamsport unless it was held in the manner it always has been. He said yesterday the organization never considered holding the tournament with only American teams. And when the feedback from the United States state department indicated it would be virtually impossible to have international teams come to the tournament, he knew the tournament wouldn't be able to be held as normal.

The state department indicated travel restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic would be one hurdle in bringing in international teams. Also, for those teams needing Visas to enter the United States, American embassies around have been closed and are not processing Visas. The state department said there's already a backlog of Visa requests and they couldn't prioritize Little League teams over those requests already made.

"It you put everything together, it pushed us to ultimately make the decision to cancel," Keener said. "But it's good to have a decision made and announced and know where things stand so we can start planning for an even better tournament in 2021."