It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
The Tucson Baseball Team was supposed to play the 2025-26 season at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson, Arizona, bringing winter baseball to the continental United States for the first time.
Alas, it didn’t work out that way. Days before their season was to begin with a single game on the road against the Naranjeros de Hermosillo before a four-game homestand in Tucson against those same Naranjeros, the Baseball Team was forced to play on the road until the United States government approved visas for players and staff so the team could play home games in the U.S. What started out as a temporary situation ended up being permanent, at least for the 2025-26 season, as the visas for players and staff were never issued, and the team ended up playing the entire season on the road.
“It was a very difficult situation. A situation that wasn’t planned. I think it was a difficult situation for the team,” veteran catcher Alexis Wilson told World Baseball Network in Spanish during the 2026 Caribbean Series, where he was playing as a reinforcement for the Charros de Jalisco. “Obviously, we wanted to represent Tucson in the best way possible. We couldn’t be there because of things that weren’t in our hands. But, well, we were left with a playoff game. And, well, let’s hope everything works out so we can return to Tucson.”
They may not ever play a game in Tucson, however, as multiple reports in recent weeks indicate that team president Victor Cuevas and the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico is considering several cities to be the new home of the Baseball Team. Among the cities being considered are La Paz, in Baja California del Sur; Juarez, Chihuahua, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas; and San Luis Rio Colorado, Baja California, located east of Mexicali along the U.S. border.
Juarez was reported to be under consideration by the LAMP by Todo Beisbol Chihuahua in mid-February, noting in Spanish in a Facebook post, “With a metropolitan population of more than 1.6 million inhabitants, Juarez constitutes one of the largest urban markets in northern Mexico, which guarantees a broad potential base of fans, ticket consumption, merchandising and media audience. This adds to its status as a binational metropolitan area with El Paso, Texas, which constitutes a joint region of more than two million inhabitants with a shared cultural identity and a strong baseball tradition, creating a cross-border sports market capable of generating income in pesos and dollars.”
