Dominican Facilities & American Travel Baseball

[emmett16]

I run a travel baseball team and this winter we are planning a trip for the kids to play a tournament in Puerto Rico.  Playing sports is about so much more than what happens between the lines.  Kids are going to fundraise and learn  other valuable lessons throughout the entire experience.  As we are planning this out, it got me thinking about all of the baseball facilities that have been built over the years by various MLB teams down in the Dominican Republic.  It seems to me it would be advantageous for each MLB team to run a series of tournaments each year at their facilities.   Bring in American Travel teams and have them play local teams.  It would make for a trip of a lifetime for a lot of the young players, it would drive tourism to the communities we are poaching talent from, it would help build local businesses, and would allow scouts to have players come to them as opposed to traveling all over the place.   Anyway, just a thought I had.  Curious what others might think or if there are things like this in place (a quick google search didn't result in much).  If this is in the wrong section, please move.  

[Frobby]

Interesting idea.  The DR is more logistically complicated than Puerto Rico, since it is not a US territory so you have visa issues, etc.   

[emmett16]

I didn’t think of the visa/passport issues.  That obviously adds a layer of complexity.  There is a guy that runs a baseball camp in NW DC and he takes a group of players & families down to DR every winter (pre-covid)to workout/play with Julio Franco’s Group.   Parents who have have gone  have raved about the experience.