For now, don’t expect any fans at MLB games due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
A league spokesman told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal that ballparks will remain closed off to the public while the virus continues to rage across the United States.
“Given the state of the virus throughout the country and that most of our clubs do not have authorization from their local jurisdictions allowing for it, we are not able to consider hosting fans at this time,” said the spokesman.
Since the league resumed exhibition games in July, stadium seats have been saturated with cardboard cutouts, canned crowd noise and CGI taking the role of ticket payers. Some league owners, such as Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, had hoped for fans to return eventually.
“I do expect to see fans in our stadium at some point to some degree,” said Steinbrenner in an YES interview released in early July. The Yankees owner said that the organization believed Yankee Stadium could reach 30% capacity and was working with Ticketmaster on a reentry plan that included “a diagram … which would keep everybody at least six feet apart.”
Steinbrenner also said that Governor Cuomo backed their endeavors.
“(Cuomo’s) been a big advocate to getting sports back on the field and then eventually, when things are safe, to get fans back in the Stadium,” he said. “So, between the two of them, we’ve had multiple conversations over the course (of), really, the last month.”
Across the country, as other cities and state governments were reportedly exploring allowing fans back at games, the Dallas Morning News reported that MLB inclined to defer to any government permitting fans back in seats. Astros owner Jim Crane expressed his intent to sell tickets at Minute Maid Park in Houston in June, even as cases were surging in the county and across the state.
