Cuban baseball players could earn up to $50,000 each to win the World Baseball Classic
HAVANA, March 19th According to the president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, the players will collect the corresponding prize thanks to an agreement reached between that institution, the Major Leagues, and the United States Department of the Treasury.
As the time for the Cuban team to play the semifinals of the V World Baseball Classic approaches, the expectations generated around the performance of the Cuban players grow, who, if they win, could go to the final and increase the pool of corresponding dollars.
But, how much will Cuban baseball players receive if they win the tournament? This Saturday, the president of the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB), Juan Reinaldo Pérez, assured that the players who are members of the Cuba team will receive the same benefits as those of other teams.
“MLB requested a license from OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) so that Cuba can play with the same benefits as other players,” the manager told Televisión Martí.
According to the official, Cuban baseball players will receive the corresponding prize thanks to an agreement reached between the Cuban Baseball Federation, Major League Baseball (MLB) and the United States Treasury Department.
The V World Baseball Classic features a $14.4 million jackpot that rewards teams not only for success but also for simply showing up. The amount that the players receive grows for each completed round.
For starters, the 20 participating teams receive $300,000 for qualifying. Each team that wins in one of the four brackets can collect an additional $300,000. Teams that advance to the quarterfinals win $400,000, followed by $500,000 for the semifinalists.
That is precisely the amount that the players of the Cuba team already accumulate, 1.5 million, which, waiting to advance in the tournament, they will have to distribute with the FCB.
The amount that corresponds to the Federation is not defined at the moment, according to its president. The FCB is an entity directly subordinate to the sanctioned Cuban regime, which makes it more difficult for the MLB to negotiate with OFAC the collection of the money corresponding to the Cuban state entity.
“The money from the Federation is being studied with the MLB how it is going to be placed,” Pérez said this Saturday.
If they beat the United States, the Cuban team will pocket another half million dollars. If they become the winner of the V World Classic, the team would receive another million and Team Asere would return to Havana with an important purse and the silver trophy that each player gets.
The winning team will walk away with $3 million. According to Boardroom, after sharing the prize with the local federation, the players will receive a check for approximately $50,000, taking into account that each team has an average of 30 players. The calculation yields a result that indicates that the federations keep approximately half of the bag.
Following this calculation, in the event that Cuba loses against the United States, the players will return to Cuba with 25,000 dollars and the FCB would pocket some 750,000 dollars in case OFAC authorizes it after negotiations with the MLB.
In 2009, after the second Clásico was held, in which Cuba was defeated in the second round, a senior official from the National Sports Institute (INDER) denounced that the team should receive one million dollars in incentives and that they had not been able to do it because of the “blockade”.
According to Cubadebate, in the first edition of the event, held in 2006, the government renounced the incentives that corresponded to it and donated them to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the United States the previous year.
