Red Sox fans won’t miss the shortened season
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the sports world into a lock down that lasted for several months. Major League Baseball eventually came up with a plan to safely begin the season but the loss of revenue from holding games without fans in attendance led to a heated feud between owners and the Players’ Association. Players were already losing a significant chunk of their paychecks by accepting prorated salaries in a shortened season but owners demanded they take additional pay cuts to balance out the revenue they were losing from the inability to sell tickets.
The sides reluctantly came to an agreement that rescheduled Opening Day for the end of July, by which point there was only time for 60 games.
It’s hardly a guarantee that the 2021 season will start on time. A vaccine for the virus is in the early stages of being distributed but it could be months before the majority of the population is protected. If some teams reside in states that won’t allow fans to fill the ballpark in April, we could be right back in the same spot we were in earlier this year.
There’s growing optimism that a return to relative normalcy is around the corner. Fan attendance might be limited early in the season but teams should be able to open their gates by the summer. It’s possible that Opening Day will be delayed, perhaps forcing MLB to trim the schedule, but we’ll almost certainly get far more than 60 games.