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PLAY BALL IN PITTSBURGH: Blue Jays land home away from home for 2020 – Toronto Sun

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The Blue Jays have firmed up plans for their summer retreat not far from the banks of the Allegheny River.

Late Tuesday, a source close to the negotiations said that the displaced Major League Baseball team would make Pittsburgh home for the majority of its 30-game home schedule in the abbreviated 2020 season.

As first reported by the Toronto Sun, the Jays will share lovely PNC Park with the National League’s Pittsburgh Pirates, creating what looks like a seamless solution for the homeless ball club.

The Jays were forced to go stadium hunting after the Canadian government denied the team’s request to host regular season games at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae was the first to confirm that the deal is done, reporting late Tuesday that the Jays were informed by MLB that PNC Park will be available to them, paving the way to work out the remaining logistics.

It is believed there are still some details to be finalized, but with the season due to begin on Thursday, there was an urgency to have the Jays situation resolved as soon as possible. Toronto opens the 60-game campaign in St. Pete, Fla. on Friday and will likely have an extended road trip because of the stadium situation and the need for temporary renovations to accommodate them at PNC Park.

While the schedule has yet to be finalized, there are some easy and logical tweaks that can be made at the start to address conflicting home dates between the Jays and Pirates. The Jays first “home” game action is scheduled to be a July 29-30 series against the World Series champion Washington Nationals. The Pirates are in Pittsburgh for those dates, but given that the Jays will already be in D.C. for games on July 27-28, both teams will likely remain in Washington with the Jays batting last in the second two games.

It remains to be seen how long it will take to make renovations to accommodate the Jays at PNC Park, leaving the possibility that Toronto’s next three home dates against the Phillies on July 31 through Aug. 2 could be played in Philadelphia.

If the schedule evolves that way, the Jays era in Pittsburgh would begin on Aug. 11 against the Marlins.

Landing PNC Park is as close to an ideal scenario as could be imagined for the Jays. Once the team was banished from Toronto because of the Canadian government’s understandable reluctance to allow frequent border crossing by multiple teams, Jays president Mark Shapiro was committed to finding a MLB stadium to share.

From players, to coaches, to the front office, the Jays felt they would be at a distinct competitive disadvantage if they were forced to play at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field, home of their Triple A affiliate Bisons. That belief was shared at least in part by MLB and the players association, not just from the Jays perspective but from that of their opponents.

Though other alternatives were considered, almost immediately after the federal government announced its decision this past Saturday, Pittsburgh became the frontrunner based on the teams’ respective schedules and their reluctance to settle on Buffalo. There are only seven conflicting home dates, which will be among the details to be worked out before the arrangement is officially announced.

The PNC Park option picked up steam on Monday when Pirates president Travis Williams said the team would welcome a shared arrangement with the Jays for the good of baseball. There will be logistics to overcome in the interim, but with no fans attending games this summer, there will be plenty of room at PNC Park, one of the most scenic stadiums in baseball, to accommodate both teams.

An MLB source said that details of the Jays tenure in Pittsburgh — as well as the schedule — are expected to be announced by Thursday, if not sooner.

rlongley@postmedia.com

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Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announces retirement from swimming

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Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil announced her retirement from swimming Thursday.

The gold medallist in the women’s 100-metre butterfly at Tokyo’s Summer Games in 2021 made the announcement in an Instagram post alongside a photo of her swimming as a child.

“The little girl above would have never dreamed this is where her love of swimming would take her,” Mac Neil wrote. “I am so grateful for all the memories, people, and places I have gotten to experience just through swimming.

“I’m excited to begin the next chapter of my life journey, as I embark on discovering who I am outside of swimming.”

The 24-year-old from London, Ont., earned a complete set of medals in Tokyo after helping relay teams to silver and bronze medals.

Mac Neil’s five gold medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, were the most by a Canadian athlete at a single Pan Am Games.

She was fifth in butterfly and was a member of two women’s relay teams that finished fourth at the recent Olympic Games in Paris.

“Anyone who I crossed paths with never, ever told me I couldn’t achieve my goal of going to the Olympics,” Mac Neil wrote. “It’s still surreal to be able to say I’m a two-time Olympian.”

She completed her master’s degree in sport management at Louisiana State University this year.

Born in China and adopted by Dr. Susan McNair and Dr. Edward MacNeil, Mac Neil’s mother wanted her to take swimming lessons for safety reasons because of the family’s backyard pool.

Mac Neil’s 2017 diagnosis of sport-induced asthma — which can be triggered by the swimming staples of heat and chlorine — forced a switch from longer distances to sprints.

Mac Neil became Canada’s first world champion in the women’s 100-metre butterfly two years later.

The nearsighted Mac Neil, who doesn’t wear contacts or prescription goggles, has seen multiple times a meme of her squinting hard at the scoreboard in Tokyo as she tried to decipher her result.

“I like to think it helps because I can’t see where other people are and I’m able to focus on my own race,” Mac Neil said before the Olympic Games in Paris. “That was definitely the case in Tokyo.

“I got that meme sent to me at least three times in January even though it’s been three years since.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Serbia-Albania joint bid with political history set to win hosting of soccer’s Under-21 Euros

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NYON, Switzerland (AP) — Serbia and Albania are set to co-host the men’s Under-21 European Championship in 2027 in a soccer project that aims to overcome political tensions.

UEFA said Thursday only the Serbia-Albania bid met a deadline this week to file detailed tournament plans. Belgium and Turkey had declared interest earlier in the bidding process scheduled to be decided at a Dec. 16 meeting of the UEFA executive committee.

The Serbian and Albanian soccer federations teamed up in May to plan organization of the 16-team tournament played every two years that needs eight stadiums to host 31 games.

Albania soccer federation leader Armand Duka, who is a UEFA vice president, told The Associated Press in May that “it’s a 100% football project” with “a very good political message that we can get across.”

Weeks later at the men’s European Championship held in Germany, historic tensions between the Balkan countries — which in soccer included a notorious drone incident at a Serbia-Albania game in 2014 — played out at separate games involving their senior teams.

An Albania player was banned for games by UEFA for using a megaphone to join fans in nationalist chants, including targeting Serbia, after a Euro 2024 game against Croatia. Fans of Albania and Croatia earlier joined in anti-Serb chants, leading UEFA to impose fines for discrimination.

UEFA also fined both the Albanian and Serbian federations in separate incidents at Euro 2024 for fans displaying politically motivated banners about neighboring Kosovo.

After historic tensions were heightened by the 1990s Balkans conflicts, in 2008 majority ethnic Albanians in Kosovo declared independence for the former Serbian province. Serbia refuses to recognize that independence and considers Kosovo the cradle of its statehood.

An Albanian fans group daubed red paint on the federation offices in May when the cooperation with Serbian soccer for the Under-21 Euros was announced.

“We did have a few negative reactions from fans, mainly, and some interest groups,” Duka said then, “but not from the Albania government.”

UEFA has shown broad support for Serbia and Albania under its president, Aleksander Ceferin, who is from Slovenia.

The next annual congress of UEFA’s 55 national federations is in the Serbian capital Belgrade on April 3, and an executive committee meeting in September 2025 will be held in Tirana, Albania.

___

AP soccer:

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Philadelphia mayor reveals the new 76ers deal to build an arena downtown

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia’s mayor has revealed the terms of the deal negotiated with the city’s pro basketball team for a new $1.3 billion arena downtown.

The agreement reached earlier this month calls for the Philadelphia 76ers to finance the entire project, with no city funding involved. There is, however, a provision that would let the NBA team make annual payments in lieu of taxes averaging $6 million per year. The agreement also calls for a $50 million investment in businesses, neighboring communities and the city’s schools to blunt the project’s impact, Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a news conference Wednesday night.

“I truly am proud having made this decision and negotiated an agreement that will definitely ensure that our Sixers are staying home right here in Philadelphia, where they should be,” Parker said.

City officials also released drafts of the nine bills and two resolutions needed to authorize the project, including measures that allow the city to acquire the arena property and change zoning rules. Parker said her administration would hold a series of town halls in the coming months where residents could discuss concerns about the proposal.

Team owners say their planned “76 Place” project would improve a struggling retail corridor near City Hall and capitalize on the city’s public transit. They also have vowed not to renew the lease on their current space, a circa 1996 arena in the city’s South Philadelphia sports complex, when their lease runs out in 2031.

The proposal has drawn significant opposition from activists in the city’s Chinatown area, who fear it would disrupt or displace residents and businesses. They say the city has ignored concerns that the project will increase vehicle traffic in their pedestrian-friendly neighborhood and force vulnerable residents — older people, low-income families and new immigrants — to move out. Parker on Wednesday renewed her pledge to preserve the area, which is just over a block from the proposed arena site.

If ultimately approved by the City Council, demolition work in the area would begin in 2026 with construction starting two years later. Officials hope to open the arena in time for the 76ers’ 2031-32 season.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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