Cleveland Indians fans were forced to watch the entire 2020 season from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was hard to ever get used to the empty ballparks and some good news is here in 2021.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recently spoke with the media and indicated there will be fans allowed at Indians games this season.
So far, his figure was around 30 percent capacity to start the season.
Indians have continued to work with local and health officials regarding possible attendance for home games in 2021.
Gov. Mike DeWine today said he expects teams could be at 30 percent for the start of the baseball season. That's roughly 10,500 at Progressive Field.
— Ryan Lewis (@ByRyanLewis) February 22, 2021
A Positive Announcement
Getting over 10,500 fans in the stands to start the season would be great for the team.
They can now get on with the process of figuring out how to properly distance fans at games until restrictions are hopefully loosened as the year goes on.
While fans are making jokes on social media, a total of around 10,000 fans is not out of the ordinary for early-season Indians games.
So the jokes make sense to some extent.
When somebody makes a joke about the capacity limits not affecting Indians’ attendance pic.twitter.com/9YAsgi7aNL
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) February 23, 2021
Such an announcement is great because it signals some sort of return to normal within the scope of professional baseball.
Certain NFL teams had fans this season and the same is true with the NBA.
MLB was the first to play a full season without fans until a limited amount were allowed in late during the postseason.
Season-ticket holders will get first priority and anyone still not comfortable with going can still enjoy a full 162-game season from home.
Next Steps From Here
Getting an official figure from DeWine will allow the team to formulate a proper plan.
Next up comes giving instructions to season-ticket members on the process of making sure people get the tickets they paid for.
After that comes single-game tickets and the resale market so all fans can try to get to a game in 2021.
The final step?
Figuring out how many fans can go to Minor League games in Ohio.
Going with the estimate of 30 percent to start should be what happens, but we will wait to see when everything becomes official.
Just knowing fans will start getting back in the stands is an exciting thing to learn as the season approaches.
Fans truly provide a necessary atmosphere and as long as proper precautions are in place, it should make for a fun start of the 2021 Indians season.
We are still waiting on word of an official figure for the season.
But DeWine’s announcement was yet another reason to get excited about the Indians upcoming season.
Now the focus can turn right back to the team.
Can this club without Francisco Lindor give fans reasons to be excited in 2021?
Maybe the added crowd noise will serve as a boost and the club will surprise us all.
Being able to see such a feat in person would be amazing after the year everyone has had.
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