It doesn’t appear many (if any) fans will be permitted to attend Major League Baseball games this year during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there are at least a couple of teams that could have somewhat of a home-field edge. Two major league sources told Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on Thursday that the league may leave it up to local and municipal governance on whether to allow fans in the stands. That would be a plus for the Rangers and Astros, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced this week that teams in the state will now be able to fill their stadiums to 50 percent capacity.
This must be welcome news for the Texas-based clubs’ ownership groups – after all, MLB has claimed it could lose $4 billion if there aren’t fans in the seats this year. The Rangers, for their part, are still waiting to play their first game in the brand-new Globe Life Field. The Astros, after an offseason of turmoil caused by a sign-stealing scandal, would surely be happy to receive some in-person support from their fan base.
Of course, despite this news, it remains very much up in the air whether there will be baseball in Texas or anywhere else this season. The league and the union still haven’t come to a deal that would clear the way for baseball in 2020. There may also be health and safety protocols standing in the way, as Grant writes that Texas’ optimistic plans could change based on those matters. Notably, we’ve seen the coronavirus rear its head in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball this week. It’s unclear how MLB would proceed with players or fans should the illness affect one of its own teams, even if that club’s local government is open to letting spectators into the stadium.
That should go a long way toward helping the Astros overcome the incredible burden of their $2M fine for stealing a World Series, multiple league championships, and several individual awards. Imagine them being one of maybe two teams to receive an amazing windfall when they should be banned from the league.
I believe it was $5 million. They hit them really hard. 😉
How many Astros employees went to prison? Oh yeah, that would be ZERO!
that’s because no crimes were committed – and thus why the punishment was rightfully less than some of the other baseball scandals.
Lol, you have to commit a crime to go to prison
Well, at least be accused of one and tried and convicted
Crybaby. They must loving living in your head rent free.
Unless you’re Joe Exotic. Carol Baskin’s did it…
Joe Exotic… what a character
Believe 2 is the max
can we get over this? more important issues than the Astros at the moment. in fact, current events prove just how trivial the Astros thing really is in the grand scheme of things.
If you want to talk about “more important things” then go to a political board and get off the baseball board. If we don’t have any confidence whatsoever in the results on the field being legitimate, then baseball coming back matters little more than WWE coming back.
“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”
That was, is, and will always be the mentality of baseball. There has never, EVER, been a time when this sport was honest, when the game had any integrity, and if you think otherwise you’re absolutely delusional.
But you know what, it doesn’t hurt the entertainment value one little bit. So get the hell over it already, or, if you’re not willing to accept it, find another sport and stop wasting everybody’s time with your righteous indignation. Nobody, again absolutely NOBODY cares how angry you are. And if you abandon the sport, I promise no one will miss you.
@kreckert There is a huge difference between scattered individual cheating and systematic, organized, team-wide successful cheating. This is unprecedented in baseball history and literally led to the successful theft of a world title. You don’t get to sweep it under the carpet that easily.
You are such a troll…either that or you have let the Astros ruin your life, I seriously hope you are just a troll
All these hypocrites will cheer these players when they are traded to their teams.
Except most of is isn’t just scattered individual cheating. Do think the Black Sox are the only team to throw games. Please.
It’s a FACT that in the past teams have run virtual clinics to teach their pitchers how to use and hide foreign substances for gripping the ball.
It’s a FACT that teams institutionalized the access to and use of PEDs.
Institutionalized cheating is as much a part of baseball as hot dogs and bubble gum cards. So you’ve got two choices, either accept it and get over it or stop consuming the sport. Because the sport is never going to care about your complaints and neither are most of the fans.
I love the post, if you’re not cheating then you’re not trying.
Some people who hate the Astros or PED users are the same people who celebrate catchers with the best framing skills, which is also a form of cheating.
Deceiving and cheating are two very different things.
Ejemp, a purely stupid comment on your part. Maybe you should be a little more well read, rather popping off.
Just ignore this troll.
@JDGoat Ignore me? I mean LMAO you are literally my biggest fanboy
Many people can walk and chew gum at the same time.
@DarkSide830 People still talk about the Black Sox scandal which happened over 100 years ago and you expect them to just “get over” the sign-stealing scandal in less than a year?
Cry baby Cry,
They still won it.
Won? Or stole and cheated? Wake up.
if they didnt “win” then who did?
they didn’t win anything, baby
STFU already about trash cans and cheating. The hypocrisy all over sports and in society is sickening.
nope, the asterisks cheated and it should never be forgotten
so is the Black Sox scandal, but you dont hear people complaining about that in every other article.
@DarkSide The Black Sox scandal was a) less impactful to the league because it involved handing victory to the other teams, and b) met with banning all involved from baseball for life. Sounds like a good precedent to honor in my opinion.
no, losing on purpose looks a lot worse to the integrity of the game. many people (unjustly, id say) dont care how their team wins just that they do. no fans are too pleased with their team losing, and it raises concerns that other teams may be doing so.
beisbol, that may be the dumbest thing I’ve read in a while, which is saying something considering differing opinions on Covid regulations and now the current racial crisis.
@DarkSide To be absolutely clear, when teams that do not cheat win, that is a more just result than when teams that do not cheat lose. Those of us with our heads screwed on the right way have that basic sense of fair outcomes
The thing is, your assertion requires faith that there are teams out there that don’t cheat. I’m not willing to make any such a stipulation. Frankly, I just assume as a matter of course that every team is dirty one way or the other. And unless the sport would care to audit itself and get rid of every last bit of it, no individual instance matters. I don’t for a minute believe that the Astros were the only team using tech to steal signs. Not a chance. I’m not saying it’s every team but I’d bet all the money in my pockets against all the money in your pockets that it’s a clear majority. Unless the league wants to investigate every team, tear them apart from the top down and then put them back together, I don’t care what one team that was just unlucky enough to get caught does.
And no, *innocent until proven guilty* does not apply here, so don’t go there. As far as I’m concerned every team, manager, coach and player is guilty until they convince me otherwise. Which they are under no obligation to do because I just don’t care. The sport is entertaining, dirty or not, and entertainment is all we have the right to ask of sports at any time, under any circumstance.
Get over it.
The best part of this guys schtick is that he cheers for the team that is part of the reason these rules had to be put in place. But it’s hard for hypocrites to break their style.
@JDGoat The Diamondbacks are part of the reason these rules were put in place? I can’t tell if you’re actually that clueless or if you’re so in denial about the Red Sox causing this whole fiasco that you can’t see straight
@Darkside
Black Sox scandal was 100 years ago. Asrtros scandal less than a year.
That is why you do not have posts it
JD, please use actual facts instead of commenting from a bleeding heart.
What good is it if they don’t play!
If Florida does the same and allows up to 50% of the stadiums to be full, the Rays and Marlins are officially back in business.
Ha.
Would they need to GIVE money to revenue sharing for once? Lol. Would be something if the Ray’s finally had to send the yanks a check.
When is the last time the Marlins has their stadium half full
Still couldn’t reach “capacity”
After the George Floyd riots Social Distancing and masks are a joke. Strong evidence from the CDC that oops’ mask don’t do **** anyway… Play the games with fans…
source? i though we knew that masks worked pretty well at this point. even if they are subpar they should, just being only semipermeable, at least stop some contagion from entering the body.
Common man the trolls have been taking over the site stop feeding them
infectioncontroltoday.com/mask-respirators/surgica…
lol
Your “source” is a “medical” magazine publisher? So, blog writers not, for example, infectious disease specialists?
Links to the research lead to “404 Not Found” on the American College of Physicians website …in other words, fake news
Just ignore the troll
Like people ignored the social distancing the last two weeks? Whatever happened to policing the rule breaking Covid-19 guidelines? That all went out the window. We watched with our own eyes. The hypocrisy in these states to allow looting during Covid-19 is beyond words.
Play ball.
May want to check the CDC again. They recommend the use of masks because studies have shown they help.
The CDC changes there minds daily.
CDC=Changed Daily Criteria
The CDC and the WHO have proven themselves to be more or less incompetent with regard to pretty much everything they have said for 2+ months. Can we stop acting like what they say is gospel when they really don’t seem to know what they are talking about? And if it’s fine to protest in mass, it’s fine to go to sporting events, restaurants, bars, Vegas, and everything else. You don’t get to preach about science and data guiding decisions for months, only to totally stand down when the protests start. The hypocrisy is absolutely absurd.
@ted It’s not fine to protest en masse from a health standpoint.
I think a college football player has come out saying he caught covid at a protest to try and publicize the danger.
That said, you’re caught in a dual storm of liberal political correctness condoning the “cause”, combined with a group who dgaf about real laws – you know, attacking law enforcement throwing whatever is at hand be it rocks, dirt, weapons, bottles, etc – and huge crowds containing significant numbers of people who don’t mind destroying the property and livelihoods of innocent 3rd parties – businesses, homes, cars, whatever.
Do you REALLY think anyone caught up in all that cares about a stay at home recommendation?
In truth, we pretty much need to wait 10 to 14 days before we can say it’s fine to protest in masses…
Their own data says this is not a disease that harms anyone under 60 , at least beyond a normal flu. People seem unable to think for some reason. Lot of Cognitive Dissonance
Let fans decide to go or not. Those afraid of getting sick wont go. Those who trust their healthy immune system to do what it was designed by evolution to do will go (if they can afford it)
I might ban anyone over 60 from attending to protect them
Should add ban anyone obese, which is far too much of the country.
funny, religious leaders have proven themselves to be incompetent for centuries, yet tons of people take everything they say as gospel.
remember, it wasn’t the cdc saying covid-19 was a hoax, it was right wing pastors.
let’s go ask them now…. oh wait, most of them are dead.
i’ll take the CDC and WHO word over yours or any right wing nutjob.
you wanna see a hypocrite? just look in a mirror.
Believing anything from any media source or direct from CDC for that matter is a questionable decision.
how so?
if we believed sources right wingers take as fact, we wouldn’t be posting online right now (since stuff like the internet wouldn’t exist if they got their way).
heck, you’d be treating illness with prayer instead of meds, barely making it to 30.
not sorry, but i’m gonna trust doctors who use facts over people like you spouting nonsense and faith (cause that’s all you have).
Exactly.
Beaches full of people is fine, but how dare these protesters ignore the Surgeon General.
Yeah. The tin foil hats are all over this thread.
In 1969 MLK fam sued the US Fed Gov for his murder and won the case. During and at conclusion of trial not one media representative showed- not even from so called black media outlets. Fast forward 50 years- the only you trust that same government and media is to be indoctrinated into a line of thinking. A right/wrong yes/no line of thinking.
If you believe the cdc/who then you choose to believe there THEORY of what’s going on. It’s a theory bc they can’t prove it to be fact. So when other scientists whom are deemed leaders in this field say something else it’s bc the initial theory is not settled science. These scientists and doctors are ivy trained and carry more doctrine degrees than your whole family tree and the only reason you reject any other theory is bc you were first indoctrinated into the right/wrong line of thinking.
Then you insult others who choose a different theory. Right wingers (which these doctors would be as liberal as anyone) tin foil hats, ect….you do that as a defensive mechanism. You aren’t educated enough to debate but yet your mind is made up so you hurl insults.
Rise above that line of thinking and love your neighbor
good. govornmemts should be the making these choices.
So with this commish all the games will be played in Texas.
There was always going to be fans when these idiots settle. My guess was 30% after a couple weeks 50% by playoffs- Different areas may be stricter (Ca/NY) but most will open gates and at an increasing capacity as the year moves on and no further outbreaks occur. *I do worry when flu season comes late Oct*
Take a look out your window folks, its not April anymore. Americans have gotten over the initial fear realizing that yes there is a chance something bad can happen but Im getting back out there. This is all natural behavior though and nothing we should be alarmed about
It would make sense to have some fans in the stand.
Would be good for mindset of America.
Run, I’m sure the Astros are worried about your booing. They must be shaking in their spikes.
I heard the Astros are going to put blow up dolls in the stands this year…
Just in case they want to pound on something else this year!
I say they open the season with the FIELD OF DREAMS Game in Iowa. $5k/ticket
That would be epic. If baseball had it’s act together (which it doesn’t), this would be such a great time for unique marketing opportunities. Field of Dreams, home run derby’s leading up to the season starting, etc…
At this point is looking likely fans can come back at some point. How can you have thousands of people in the streets but not strategically placed in a stadium?
Great idea. Even better – open the stadiums 100% and let Americans decide if they want to go to a game.
yes please, let nature take it’s course
Ok, with the potential of fans in stands in some stadiums it’s probably time the league takes a gamble on that and agrees to prorated salaries for an 80ish game season.
I haven’t studied the numbers much other than at the surface but is the leagues supposed $4 billion loss an actual operating loss or $4 billion in missed revenue? Cuz that is quite a difference. Does anyone know?
@heater There’s a lot we don’t know that goes into it.
2019 had attendance of 68,494,752 fans at am average ticket price of $32.99. That season long revenue was $2,259,641,868.48 at that price.
We don’t know parking, concessions, merchandise, etc sales for each game, but, there are assumptions.
Basically, mlb claims after ALL expenses most teams average 50m or so each in net profit per season. It’s logical to assume that if you take the numbers in good faith the losses aren’t just profit. That would assume two things – one, that using similar revenue number to 2019 for 2020 baseline, of the $10b in expected 162 game revenue, then roughly $4.1b of player salaries, if you try to call another $4b to be ‘profit’ that could be lost, there’s only $2b for all other expenses. That wouldn’t be realistic.
As an aside, most people don’t understand how payroll works either.
Ignoring state and in some cases city taxes on payroll, the federal government makes employers pay fica, medicare, federal unemployment, etc in addition to employee withholdings. This is to the tune of 9.15% of employee wages in 2020.
Original MLB payroll for 2020 was supposed to be $4.1 billion, not counting for midyear callups, free agents who hadnt signed yet, etc. So you’re talking somewhere over 375 million extra in taxes, and that’s only players – not managers, coaches, scouts, front office, team employees, what’s paid to minor leaguers, etc.
Lots of expenses people don’t think, or commonly know, about.
This news makes a REASONABLE settlement with the MLBPA possible, if only the MLBPA would agree to be REASONABLE.
Play 82 games under MLB’s “sliding scale”. ADD to that a 50/50 split of any ticket revenue for all teams that the MLBPA can aggregate then distribute however they choose.
Ticket sales don’t require opening books. There’s a chance, based on decisions of neutral 3rd parties, that revenues could even allow players to come out ahead of original prorated salaries.
Done. Play ball.
If this comes to pass and some teams are allowed to have fans present and others aren’t, or if some teams play in “50% capacity” states, others in “25% capacity” venues… how will they divvy up the revenue from fans?
Wonder if the owners will be all forthcoming and everything and tell the players, “Wow, we actually took in more cash than we anticipated, so we’re going to increase our payout to you guys.”
My first thoughts, too. How fair is it that the Astros can go to 50% capacity yet my Pads would have an empty stadium? (Speaking on financial aspects only.)
If that were the case, the teams not allowed fans should instead put a trashcan in every seat!
Jokes aside though, teams could put fake cardboard cutouts of fans in the seats, wearing team colours/jerseys, and have people be able to pay to have their faces on a cutout, with the cutout sent to the fan after a game and signed by players. That could be fun for the tv cameras, give a nice souvenir to fans, and generate some revenue for teams. Perhaps could even number each cutout and have a signed jersey raffle/lottery for each game too.
“Hi, Bob. Welcome to work. We need you to make up 20,000 cardboard cutouts to put in the seats today… and again tomorrow…”
I would assume that they would use more than one person to do the job and that a lot of it could be machine printed/automated.
That or just do it for a series/week or month at a time.
Otherwise I think Bob might have a breakdown of some sort haha poor Bob.
“Anybody seen Bob?”
“Pretty sure he’s sitting at the bar…”
“Is he hammered?”
“Well… he’s hitting on a cardboard cutout…”
Have you seen my stapler
They need to have a season to make that a relevant decision
Let’s just shut everything down and all go live in pods. Forget about baseball or anything else. There will be plenty of new viruses coming along to worry about. If the new appropriate response every time someone is scared of a virus is to collapse the economy and destroy everything that makes life worth it then let’s just all stop living and enter the matrix. It would be more honest with ourselves than temporarily restoring basic freedom only to take it away again every time some idiot government officials panic..
Professor Neil Ferguson, the guy whose bright idea was to lock everyone up and make millions unemployed, finally decided to admit he was wrong, but only once he knew the news would be focused elsewhere. Fancy that.
rt.com/op-ed/490659-ferguson-undermined-uk-lockdow…
an op-ed piece from russia today?
no thanks, comrade
I hope you all are safe and healthy and enjoying the early summer evening winds.
power was out yesterday so i got the full force of those “summer evening winds” without a fan on…
I’ll go to some Reds games if they let me in lol.
Absolutely Reds!
Baseball should not be played this year. The Commissioner is a dunce. Who wants to watch a bunch of cheating. Give the fans a break. Lower the ticket prices. Maybe then we will care.
My gut feeling all along was that the baseball owners were still going to be selling game access to those luxury boxes for the rich corporation owners. Far enough from the players that nothing would happen. Don’t need anything but a couple ushers and people to serve the food (usually special entrances and elevators for the luxury boxes). Rich people always seem to be able to do whatever they want, and it’s revenue for the teams.
honestly i cant see why luxury boxes cant be open given they are isolated from each other. that makes up a lot of stadium revenue and could very well be the key to solving this issue. sure average fans may not like that in a bubble, but beats no games being played.
Leave it to the owners to come up with this negotiating ploy.
I wouldn’t open at 50% capacity to start, but fans can sign a waiver that they won’t hold the team or MLB responsible if they contract COVID-19 at a game. That exempts baseball from responsibility. Teams can also take fans temperatures as they enter. Universal Studios & Disney are doing that when they re=open and so are places like casinos.
This isn’t remotely MLB”s decision. Local government WILL decide whether fans are allowed to gather for a game, period. In all cases. MLB can only decide NOT to allow fans if a local government says it’s OK, not the other way around.