The Draci Brno, a baseball club that is part of the Czech Baseball Extraliga, the highest level of baseball in the Czech Republic, announced on Monday that the organization will become the first Czech baseball team to pay players.
According to baseballstatcz on X, an account dedicated to Czech baseball analytics and stats, paying players will cost the Draci Brno 2 million CZK, or about $80,000 United States dollars annually. The Czech Extraliga is a semi-professional league, and the rosters consist of amateur baseball players not holding professional status.
This is potentially huge: Draci Brno started to pay their players a salary as the first Czech baseball team ever!
It will cost them close to 2 million CZK ($80 000) a year https://t.co/8M7USro8ek— baseballstatcz (@baseballstatcz) March 3, 2025
During the Czech Republic’s debut in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, many viewers learned that most of the roster earned their salary at a day job. Martin Schneider, the team’s starting shortstop in the tournament, worked as a firefighter daily. Arnost Dubvoy, the Czech Republic’s center fielder, is a high school geography teacher. Their manager at the WBC, Pavel Chadim, is a neurologist.
In a statement translated from Czech to English and released on the Draci Brno website, the organization’s general manager, Arnost Nesnal, emphasized that he wants the Draci Brno players to be able to dedicate their time to baseball.
“Our longtime players behave like professionals. Baseball is their priority, and they decided to combine their career with Draci Brno,” said Nesnal in the statement on the Draci Brno website.“The players have fulfilled their part. The task of the club is for them to prepare such a system of support that will respect their time spent by baseball and motivate them as comparable to players from developed baseball countries. The system also remembers younger players who have a career ahead of them and are willing to devote themselves to baseball to the fullest. Simply, training becomes a “brigade”, make the head, improve and no longer look for a part-time job elsewhere and devote yourself to baseball.”
The Czech Extraliga played its first season in 1993, comprising eight teams. The Draci Brno is the most successful baseball organization in Czech Extraliga history. The club has won 25 league championships since 1995, including 16 straight titles from 1995 to 2010. In 2024, they defeated Germany’s Guggenberger Legionare Regensburg 6-3 in the Baseball European Champions Cup.
The Draci Brno paying their players is a massive step forward for developing professional baseball in Czechia. If the resources and finances are available, maybe we’ll see more organizations in the Extraliga take this step, too.
