Does playoff crowd provide path to ’21?
ARLINGTON, Texas – It’s been about eighth months since the United States began grappling with the novel coronavirus, mitigation ranging from casual to militant, lessons missed and learned along the way as the disease killed nearly a quarter-million Americans.
For Major League Baseball, returning to some semblance of a life it once knew – not just games, but fans; not just TV revenue, but paying customers – has been going on all of a couple of weeks.
The league welcomed fans into the stands for the first time over seven games of the National League Championship Series, and then for the World Series with filled Globe Life Field to 25% capacity for the matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays.
The roar of an actual crowd – even a diminished one – has been a balm for players forced to generate their own adrenaline through a 60-game regular season with no fans. And as deaths related to COVID-19 continue apace, the game is entering what may be a lengthy bridge period – easing out of a total shutdown, yet far away from full capacity with a widely distributed vaccine likely not available until well into 2021.
The parameters in place at this neutral site – zip ties around seats to keep fans distanced, mandatory mask requirements, abundant handwashing stations – will likely serve as a baseline for the 2021 season, which begins in April.
Already, adjustments have been made.
When a gaggle of fans crowded around the first three rows beyond the fences in left and right fields, the better to catch a home run ball or an interaction with a player, the host Texas Rangers and MLB roped off those seats for the final four
games of the NLCS.
For all the protocols in place, there is always the unforeseen bottlenecks of potential spread, be it for batting practice souvenirs or ones you pay for – tables in various souvenir shops often created a cluster of un-distanced fans checking sizes and prices.
Yet on balance, according to one expert, MLB’s first steps toward paying customers appear well-considered.
“You have to start somewhere,” says Jill Roberts, an infectious disease expert at the University of South Florida. “I would much rather see this, a small scale, than full capacity. It sounds like some thought has gone into it. Maybe there needs to be more, not to have packed shops and such. But a lot of times, we don’t know a lot of the factors until we try it. Maybe the way to do it is small scale, and lessons are learned.”
The clock is ticking quickly for an industry that lost billions of dollars in a season shortened from 162 to 60 games and took in zero game-day revenue. With teams in 28 markets, MLB will have to abide by – or cut a deal
with – health departments across the country to ensure fans in every stadium.
That’s a significant reason why the NL Division Series, NLCS and World Series were in the Lone Star State – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott flung the door open for fans in stands at sporting events in June, just before a summer spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state.
MLB’s Texas test case could potentially provide a path to fans on a wider scale in 2021.
“Thus far the Rangers have executed the protocols well,” MLB said in a statement, “and the hard work of their staff is providing a road map for other Clubs to host fans next season.”
It was an interesting sight, seeing fans spread about the stadium in pods of four. It’s clear many were families and close friends, as MLB intended when selling the tickets in quartets that couldn’t be individually resold. Mask compliance appeared strong, at least on concourses and other common areas.
“The masks, the distancing and the (hand-washing) ports – they have soap and everything.
We’re OK. We feel safe,” says Albert Leza of Laredo, who attended Game 7 of the NLCS with his wife, Roxy. “We’re used to having more people around. We’d like to see more fans, but you can still have fun like this.” Perhaps too much fun. The Lezas were wearing their masks in their seats, but that piece of the equation was much more hit-or-miss. MLB’s ticket policy this postseason states that masks must be worn “except while eating or drinking,” which could serve as a Texassized loophole for non-compliance, particularly at an event where alcohol is sold.
“I like to call it the Starbucks effect – people take their masks off and sit there for two hours, sipping a beverage,” says USF’s Roberts. “As long as you have alcohol in your hands, you can take your mask off. My concern would be getting into arguments, getting closer than you need to be.
“As long as you have beverages of any sort, people will have them to take their masks off. And the longer you take them off, the more dangerous you are.”
The coronavirus’ delayed and insidious nature means the league won’t be able to hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner once every fan has left the final game of the World Series. If there is a case of community spread at a playoff game, it likely will be weeks or even months before it is discovered, what with fans returning to towns across Texas and to home markets in California and Florida.
Roberts said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks data across states and likely would connect the dots back to Globe Life Field. MLB did not request specific information from ticket buyers for the purpose of contact tracing but said in a statement to USA TODAY that it will “assist public health authorities in any contact tracing by providing any information requested, including identifying information of ticket purchasers.”
Tickets to the World Series sold out the day they went on sale, and all NLCS games eventually sold out, the crowds ranging from 10,800 to the low 11,000s. The combination of a baseball-starved populace, the stakes of the playoffs and a new, $1.1 billion stadium that even hardcore aficionados had never seen were all significant lures.
Come April, a far wider swath of fans, including casual ones, will be in play. To that end, MLB sent out an extensive survey to ticket buyers that gauged their willingness to accept risk, which virus mitigation procedures (masks, hand-washing, distancing) they valued most, and even their political affiliations.
Naturally, progress on a vaccine would greatly affect any fan’s calculus. But the production line and distribution of the vaccine will likely unfold over much of 2021, which means these playoff games’ look, sound and feel to paying customers may last for at least another season.