The Texas Rangers announced Wednesday that they will allow 100% capacity at Globe Life Field for their opener in Arlington. The announcement comes a week after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he was canceling the mask state mandate and opening Texas to “100%.”
“It is recommended that the Rangers give us permission from the Governor’s Office to fully open the Globe Life Field at the start of the 2021 Major League Baseball season,” the President of Business Operations and CEO of operations, Neil Leibman, in a press release. and CBS Sports. Liebman said all attendees will be required to wear a mask or face liner.
The Rangers also plan to allow full capacity in their last two display games. After the opening day, the Rangers will switch to a system where certain sections will allow for “remote seating,” according to the team’s website. According to MLB.com, the stadium has a capacity of approximately 40,000 people.
“We will not have the social distance seats available for the opening day, because we made a commitment to everyone [season ticket holders] that they could keep the tickets if we allowed them the proper opening day, “executive vice president and head of revenue and marketing Joe Januszewski told MLB.com.” We will respect that, so to do that we would obviously be at full capacity. “
Fans with opening day tickets who are not comfortable watching the game will be allowed to exchange tickets for a future match.
- Keep track of the attendance plans of each MLB team here.
The April 5 game with the Toronto Blue Jays will mark the Rangers’ first game at their new stadium with fans. As many as 11,500 had been allowed to attend each match of the 2020 National League and World Series Championships, both played entirely at the Globe Life Field, which served as a neutral venue to prevent teams from having to travel.
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No fans were allowed to attend any regular season games during the pandemic-reduced MLB 2020 season. Although many teams have announced plans to allow limited attendance in 2021, the Rangers are so far the only team that allows 100% stadium capacity even in a single game.
The Houston Astros announced Wednesday that they will allow a limited number of fans to attend home games at Minute Maid Park this season, according to CBS affiliate KHOU-TV. The team has not yet made any decision on the exact number of fans they will be allowed to attend.
Abbott’s announcement that Texas would drop mask mandates and corporate restrictions was fulfilled harsh criticism of President Joe Biden. As of Tuesday, Texas classified 47 of the 50 states as a percentage of the population received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.
“I’m worried we’re in the perfect storm. We’re lifting restrictions, variant B.1.1.7 is here to a large extent and we’re lagging behind in vaccinations. None of this is good news,” Drs. Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor College of Medicine. “We will be in much better condition in a couple of months. I just don’t understand the urgency of removing the restrictions.”
More than 45,500 people in Texas have died since the pandemic began, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Jonathan Vigliotti contributed to the reports.