With COVID-19 infection rates increasing at the start of baseball’s relaunch in 2020, even a television-only season seems like a tough task. However, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner offered a surprisingly optimistic tone regarding fans returning to Yankee Stadium this year, as George A. King III of the New York Post reports.
“I hope to see fans at our stadium at some point and to some degree,” says Steinbrenner. There are limitations to vision, naturally. Even the KBO, which has been playing for some time now, has yet to reintroduce fans and will do so on a limited basis when the time comes. Steinbrenner assumes attendance “will be 20-30 percent [capacity] range, hopefully at first.
Still not selling for the plausibility of that plan? Steinbrenner says it can be done, claiming that “it is definitely possible at the stadium to keep people at a safe distance, wearing masks to those abilities.” And he says the team has already had many promising interactions with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The state’s top elected official “has been a strong advocate for sports to return to the field and, finally, when things are safe, for fans to return to the stadium,” Steinbrenner says.
If the Yankees’ faithful are allowed to return to the park, they will obviously do so in an unknown formation. As expected, in addition to asking him to put on masks, fans are expected to spread. Steinbrenner says the team has worked with Ticketmaster to “put together a diagram that keeps everyone at least 6 feet away.”
First, the Yankees will need to get through camp and start playing. The team is aware of the need to maintain a healthy list. Steinbrenner says the organization is committed to ensuring “everyone is safe, everyone keeps their distance and follows protocols” during the second training period.
