BOSTON -- Opening Day of full capacity at Fenway Park was dreary and soggy, at least in the pregame hours.

Though the Red Sox weren’t expecting a sellout on Saturday due to various logistics, the weather clinched it. And in a way, this wasn’t a bad thing.

Going from 25 percent to 100 percent capacity in the span of 24 hours is a hectic thing for a baseball franchise, given all of the operational challenges and demands of a typical gameday – of which the Sox hadn’t had since Sept. 29, 2019.

Fenway has a capacity of close to 38,000. How close would they get to that on Saturday?

“I think we’re at about 24,000 paid, something like that,” said Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy. “But with the weather that’s going on out there today, I would imagine we’ll have a significant decrease in terms of our turnstile count. So maybe 16, 17,000 in the building, something like that, it’s pretty bad out there.

“So we’ll see where we wind up today and tomorrow. As much as we’d love to have a full house, it’s nice, to be honest with you, to have a bit of a dry run with the restrictions being relaxed. It will probably work out for the best today and tomorrow, and then [we’ll] be ready for June 8.”

As Kennedy playfully noted, this dry run was actually a wet run, with more rain expected on Sunday. The tarp was removed roughly 40 minutes before the scheduled first pitch, and the game started after a 15-minute delay.

Saturday and Sunday are the final two games of the homestand -- but the first ones the Sox were eligible to open at full capacity according to Massachusetts state guidelines.

By June 8, when the Sox open a seven-game homestand against the Astros and Yankees, season-ticket holders will be back in the ballpark for the first time this season. And the Fenway operations staff should be back in full rhythm by then.

“We’re going back to sort of pre-COVID protocols. We’re asking that any unvaccinated fans, certainly our employees in food and beverage, will be wearing masks,” said Kennedy. “Other than that, you’re going to see a Fenway Park that you’re used to seeing. So to have a bit of a dry run … from a business sense and from a competitive sense, we’d like to see 37,000 here. I actually do think this will give us a chance, today and tomorrow, to get our sea legs under us and then be ready to go on June 8.”

Kennedy said roughly 85 to 90 percent of ticketholders renewed their packages, which is one of the highest percentages in MLB.

“We are very grateful and thankful for that,” Kennedy said.

The one area the Red Sox in which aren’t at such a high percentage is getting their own clubhouse vaccinated. Sixteen of MLB’s 30 teams have reached the 85-percent threshold of Tier 1 individuals being fully vaccinated, which allows for the relaxation of certain health and safety protocols for those teams.

The Red Sox are one of the 14 teams that aren’t there yet, and manager Alex Cora said Friday the team had come to a standstill with their numbers within the last week. He noted that the category of Tier 1 individuals also includes Triple-A Worcester.

“For sure, it is frustrating, because you’d like to be at 100 percent,” said Kennedy. “It’s really important with the situation we’re dealing with to have as many people vaccinated as possible. That said, you have to respect differences of opinion, thought [and] approach to combating COVID, and so we respect the individual players who have decided to not get vaccinated.

“But the honest answer is that it is frustrating, because I know for the coaching staff and the players who have been vaccinated, you’d like to see a relaxing of protocols across the game. The honest answer is, yes, it’s frustrating, but also we’re respectful of individual choice and people have the right to decide what’s best for them.”