SF Giants: More Movement Towards Larger Fan Attendance

At the end of last week, the SF Giants received some news that they will likely be able to host fans by their first home game of the season, but clarity on this has only made the news better. The initial expectation was that the Giants would host a maximum of 20 percent (or 8,400 fans) of Oracle Park’s full capacity.

However, now that San Francisco is projected to transition to a less-restrictive (orange) tier by March 24, the team would be able to increase attendance to 33% capacity by the first home game of the season. The city currently sits in the red tier, the third-most restrictive tier out of the four, after spending most of the winter in the purple tier.

More news suggests the SF Giants will have even larger fan attendance to start the season.

The progression to the red or orange tiers signal an encouraging trend that the country might finally be turning the corner against the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the continued expansion of the country’s vaccination program, hopefully, we can all soon be living far safer lives.

If San Francisco moves into the orange tier, and the city of San Francisco imposes no additional guidelines, the Giants will host a maximum of 13,800 fans for the team’s home opener on April 9th against the Colorado Rockies. Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group notes that the Giants will not be able to reach that number since tickets must be sold in socially-distanced pods.

The SF Giants are in a better financial position than many other teams in MLB. If the franchise is allowed to welcome back fans at the start of the 2021 season, the team will be even better positioned financially going forward. Hopefully, fans can see that translate to aggressiveness on the free-agent and trade markets soon.