Texas Rangers plan for full stadium capacity
The Texas Rangers are on track to become the first team in Major League Baseball or any major U.S.-based sports league to have a full-capacity crowd since the coronavirus pandemic started altering the sports landscape a year ago.
On the same day Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order took effect allowing businesses in the state to operate at 100% capacity, Rangers CEO Neil Leibman said Wednesday that the team hopes to be at that for the April 5 opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.
“We’re very confident we won’t be a superspreader event,” said Leibman, who is also the team’s president of business operations. “With all the protocols that we’re following, we’ll be extremely responsible and provide a very comfortable environment for somebody to enjoy the game without worrying we’re going to be a spreader event.”
The pandemic could still alter the team’s intent to host a capacity crowd at the 40,518-seat Globe Life Field, which the Rangers opened last year without fans in the stands.
Local officials are still able to impose “mitigation strategies,” such as reduced capacity, if virus hospitalizations exceed 15% of all hospital capacity in their region over certain periods.
The Rangers will still require fans to wear masks for games, unless they are actively eating and drinking at their seats, as was the case for postseason MLB games played at their stadium last October.
After the Rangers played all 30 of their home games during the shortened 2020 season without fans, MLB allowed about 28% capacity at the retractable-roof stadium for the National League Championship Series and World Series that were played there exclusively. Abbott was on hand for the World Series opener, where he got to deliver the “Play Ball!” message before a crowd of 11,388. YANKS’ BRITTON SURGERY SET; LIKELY OUT UNTIL MAY>> New York Yankees left-handed Zack Britton is scheduled for surgery Monday to remove a bone chip from his pitching elbow and seems likely to be out until at least May.
Britton will not be able to throw for several weeks.
FOMER GIANTS COACH NORM SHERRY DIES >> Former major league coach, player and manager Norm Sherry has died. He was 89. Sherry’s family said that he died Monday, but they didn’t divulge a cause of death. He was living in San Diego County.
Sherry spent 16 seasons as a coach, including stints as pitching coach for the National League pennant-winning San Diego Padres in 1984 and NL pennant-winning San
Francisco Giants in 1989. He worked for the Giants from 1986-91.
Soccer
EARTHQUAKES HOST FC DALLAS IN HOME OPENER ONAPRIL24>> The San Jose Earthquakes announced that the club will host FC Dallas in their 2021 home opener on Saturday, April 24. The match will kick off at 12:30 p.m. and will air nationally on Univision, TUDN and Twitter. It is expected to be the first professional sporting event in Santa Clara County with fans in attendance since March 2020.
More information regarding ticketing will be announced soon as plans are being finalized with Major League Soccer and both state and county health officials. Season ticketholders who rolled over from 2020 to 2021 will have priority for tickets, followed by new season ticketholders.
The Quakes open the regular season on Friday, April 16 at Houston Dynamo FC in the first overall match of the 2021 MLS season.
The Earthquakes’ full 2021 schedule and broadcast information will be announced later.
College athletics
KANSAS FIRES ATHLETIC DIRECTOR AFTER LES MILES DEBACLE >> Kansas has fired athletic director Jeff Long less than two days after mutually parting with Les Miles amid sexual misconduct allegations dating to the football coach’s time at LSU, according to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Kurt Watson will serve as the interim athletic director as the school begins searching for both a new AD and new football coach.
Long’s dismissal came one day after he vowed to lead the search for Miles’s successor, a move that drew significant backlash from Kansas alumni. It was Long who had hired Miles, his friend of more than 30 years, despite questions that ultimately led to his firing Monday night.
Tennis
AFTER YEAR-LONG LAYOFF, FEDERER RETURNS WITH A WIN >> After more than a year out, Roger Federer started his 24th season on tour with a win.
It was far from easy for the former No. 1, though, as he was pushed hard by Dan Evans at the Qatar Open before winning the second-round match 7-6 (8), 3-6, 7-5.
It was Federer’s first match in 405 days after having knee surgery following the 2020 Australian Open.
Playing for nearly 2 1/2 hours tested the 39-yearold Swiss player’s stamina following his long break. Federer saved a set point at 6-5 down in the first-set tiebreaker and saved two break points at 3-3 in the deciding set before sealing the win with a break of Evans’ serve.
The NFL’s salary cap will be $182.5 million per team in the upcoming season, a drop of 8% from 2020. The league’s loss of revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic caused the first decrease in the cap since 2011, which followed an uncapped season.
Free agency begins next Wednesday, though the “legal tampering” period starts Monday.
The current cap is $2.5 million higher than projected last month. Last summer, the players’ union and league agreed to a cap minimum of $175 million, but that number jumped by $5 million in February and was set at $182.5 million on Wednesday.
The Rams are currently $41 million beyond the cap. The Eagles were over by about $35 million and the Saints by $33 million.
On the other side of the ledger, the Jets, Patriots and Jaguars had the most money available, ranging from $65 million to $67 million.
Nine players having been given franchise tags: receivers Chris Godwin (Tampa Bay) and Allen Robinson (Chicago); offensive linemen Taylor Moton (Carolina), Cam Robinson (Jacksonville) and All-Pro Brandon Scherff (Washington); safeties Marcus Maye (New York Jets), Marcus Williams (New Orleans) and Justin Simmons (Denver); and defensive tackle Leonard Williams (New York Giants). Their cap numbers are set by the tag designations. HEALTHY PRESCOTT SIGNS RICHEST CONTRACT IN COWBOYS HISTORY >> Dak Prescott walked briskly and bounced up the couple of steps onto the stage for the announcement of the richest contract in the storied history of the Dallas Cowboys for their latest star quarterback.
It was five months almost to the day Wednesday since the gruesome ankle injury that ended Prescott’s 2020 season and led to immediate questions whether the big payday would ever come after a long stalemate.
The answer came two days earlier when the sides — two years after they started talking — agreed on a $160 million, four-year contract with the NFL’s second-highest annual average behind Kansas City star Patrick Mahomes.
SAINTS RELEASE SANDERS >> The New Orleans Saints released wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders and reportedly restructured the contracts of offensive lineman Andrus Peat and safety Malcolm Jenkins, clearing nearly $16 million in cap space.
The Saints are also expected to release linebacker Kwon Alexander in the coming days, a move that would clear another $13 million.
Sanders, who turns 34 on March 17, would have counted $10.5 million against the salary cap in 2021.
PANTHERS REWORK MCCAFFREY, THOMPSON >> The Panthers have restructured the contracts of running back Christian McCaffrey and linebacker Shaq Thompson, freeing up more than $11 million in cap space.
The moves leave the Panthers about $30 million under the salary cap, but the team has roughly $17 million of that pegged to sign draft picks and to have on hand for the start of the season for additional moves. That leaves Carolina with $13 million to spend.
BILLS CUT BROWN, JEFFERSON >> The Buffalo Bills released receiver John Brown and defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson.
Brown had one year remaining on a three-year, $27 million contract he signed in free agency. And Jefferson had one year left on the two-year, $13.5 million contract he signed in joining the Bills last offseason.