LOS ANGELES — In 2020, when the pandemic forced postponement of the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers and Major League Baseball nonetheless honored a commitment to deliver almost $2 million worth of community benefits.
In 2022, as Dodger Stadium finally gets to play host to that All-Star Game, the team and the league promised Wednesday to deliver an additional $4 million in community benefits.
These are not the often-inflated estimates of economic impact, the predictably rosy forecasts of how a big event can attract big spenders to town. This is what the league calls its All-Star Legacy initiative, launching and supporting programs that provide a long-lasting community impact.
The 2022 projects include funding to provide four million meals for children and families who might otherwise go hungry on weekends when school meals are not available; to recruit and train 1,500 youth sports coaches; and to provide 85 college scholarships for Boys and Girls Club members.
In 2020, MLB and the Dodgers helped to renovate a service center for veterans. In 2022, in partnership with the Justin Turner Foundation, the league and the team plan to invest in a skid row facility where homeless veterans can stay for as little as one month and as long as two years, with support services to help the transition to permanent housing. Los Angeles has about 4,000 homeless veterans, according to the league, representing the largest concentration of homeless veterans in the United States.
The 2020 projects also included the dedication of four baseball and softball fields — two in Lincoln Heights, one in South Los Angeles and one in Chinatown — that the league said have served a combined 44,000 youth so far.
