Indians ‘excited’ for 30% capacity

The home stadiums for outdoor professional teams could be filled to 30% of capacity starting this spring if fans wear masks and maintain social distancing, Ohio governor Mike DeWine announced Feb. 22.

The announcement applies to the Indians, Reds, Captains, RubberDucks and Clippers in baseball plus the Crew and FC Cincinnati of Major League Soccer.

“We can do that if everyone is masked,” DeWine said in an Associated Press story. “Kids have been relatively close together (in school), and yet we’ve not seen the spread in classrooms.”

Whether the stadiums would actually be filled to 30% would be up to the individual communities. The Mudhens, the Triple-A farm team of the Tigers, on Feb. 19 announced they would limit fans to 1,500 a game — about 15% capacity of Fifth Third Field.

Filling 30% of Progressive Field would mean about 10,000 fans could attend Indians home games. Fans were not allowed into stadiums in 2020 when the Major League Baseball season was reduced to 60 games because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic wiped out minorleague baseball on all levels across the country.

“The Cleveland Indians are excited at the prospect of playing host to fans at Progressive Field in April 2021,” the Indians said in a statement. “While we finalize our health and safety protocols in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic and local and state officials over the next few days, we did begin communication to season ticket holders today regarding our proposed plans to accommodate fans this season.”

DeWine said the plan could change if a coronavirus variant becomes dominant before the end of March.