Limited capacity at NY stadiums a 'first step'

The Yankees are scheduled to open the regular season by hosting the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on April 1, and there may be fans in the seats following New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's announcement that arenas and stadiums will be permitted to open with limited capacity.

Gov. Cuomo said on Wednesday that venues with seating capacities of 10,000 or greater will be permitted to host fans at 10 percent capacity beginning on Feb. 23. Yankee Stadium's official seating capacity is 46,537, according to the team's media guide.

• Yanks open Spring Training on Feb. 17

"Governor Cuomo's announcement today is an encouraging first step," the Yankees said in a statement. "We thank the governor for his leadership, and we will continue to engage his office in productive dialogue moving forward.

"The safety of everyone who enters Yankee Stadium remains our top priority, and we will work diligently and in lock-step with the governor to ensure all precautions and procedures are being followed as we lead up to the 2021 baseball season."

Following the models used for a Jan. 9 Buffalo Bills playoff game, the NBA's Brooklyn Nets are expected to welcome back fans for a Feb. 23 game against the Sacramento Kings at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. All fans will have to produce a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of attendance. Socially distant seating and face coverings will be mandated.

"While we continue to fight COVID on multiple fronts, we must also get this economy re-opened intelligently and in a balanced way," Cuomo said. "Live sports and entertainment have long been engrained in the fabric of New York and the inability to hold events has only added to the isolation we have all felt at the hands of this virus.

"Thankfully, our pilot program to reopen Buffalo Bills games to fans was an unparalleled success and now we are taking that model and expanding it to other large venues across the state to not only reinvigorate local economies, but also help bring some fun and joy back into people's lives as safely as possible."

Last year, the Yankees coordinated with Ticketmaster to produce a "pod" seating chart that would have permitted 12,000 to 15,000 fans to attend games. In August, the Yankees proudly announced that Yankee Stadium was the first sports and entertainment venue to achieve the coveted WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) said that the Yankees had fulfilled numerous health and safety standards to proactively address COVID-19 prevention as well as overall health and safety.

According to the IWBI, the Yankees are appropriately prepared to accommodate fans' reintroduction when approved by Major League Baseball and local government authorities.

"We're following the lead of our Commissioner and the Governor on what comes next,” Doug Behar, the Yankees' senior vice president of stadium operations, said following the IWBI announcement. “We wanted to be as prepared as possible, to have confidence that we're doing the right things to be ready."