Phoenix Rising to allow 50% capacity for opener

Phoenix Rising FC will allow 50% fan capacity at its new stadium at Wild Horse Pass when its regular season opens April 30, the club announced.

Phoenix opens its season at the new stadium, off Interstate 10 on the Gila River Indian Community, against division rival San Diego Loyal SC.

The new stadium, part of the club’s new soccer complex built on the Indian Community, will hold about 10,000 fans when full. The club is moving at less than full capacity to start the season because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The USL Championship league season is starting later than usual because of the pandemic, extending into late October.

In addition to limited fan capcity, the club said masks will be enforced at all times during the match unless eating or drinking.

“The safety of our fans, players and staff is our first priority,” said Phoenix Rising General Manager Bobby Dulle in a press release. “We have been working with state and local officials to determine the optimal capacity at our new stadium now that the COVID-19 vaccine is becoming more prevalent. We felt limiting our capacity and maintaining the safety measures put into place last season allows us to keep our community safe as we move forward with our return to play.”

With the announcement of limited capacity, the season opener is almost sold out. The club is looking to have a Rising member pre-sale for fans looking to buy additional tickets before opening general sales to the public, but details were not yet made available Thursday.

Fans with tickets for the game will be able to access their seat assignments on April 21. Seat assignments are being made based on social-distancing guidelines and priority numbers. Those fans looking to sell their tickets will be able to resell but will not be able to break up their assigned 2 or 4 seat blocks when selling them.

All ticket sales will be digital and inside the stadium, all transactions will be cashless. Tickets that are presented as screenshots or printed will not be scanned or accepted.

The club also will enforce a clearbag policy for fans entering the stadium, with the only exceptions being diaper bags and bags for medical reasons. Non-clear bags, purses and backpacks will not be allowed into the stadium along with outside food or drinks, signs, banners and weapons of any kind.

The stadium will include additional on-field premium seating, new VIP suites and outdoor patio seating elevated along the east sideline, a doublesided video scoreboard and an expanded team merchandise store.

The April 30 season opener begins at 7 p.m., and gates will open to fans 90 minutes before then.