Dodgers co-owner thinks baseball might not ‘feel normal’ until 2022

One of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers believes baseball games won’t return to normal until nearly two years from now.

After facing some rather serious obstacles, MLB’s goal became a reality: they made it to the World Series. While many criticized commissioner Rob Manfred’s expanded postseason, the Fall Classic features the two best teams in the league. However, the World Series is different this time around due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While everyone is hoping for life to return to normal in 2021, an MLB owner is being a bit more realistic.

Todd Boehly, the co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, tells Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times that he doesn’t see baseball games returning to normal until 2022.

“For us, we’re starting to think a lot about, come March, what are the proper testing protocols, and how are we going to get fans back into stadiums, and how can we test at scale,” asks Boehly. “How can we have testing protocols that get people safely back into the seats, even if we have a vaccine?

“We think this is now going to be in our backpack of risks, and we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with it. Hopefully, quick, cheap testing is going to be one of the many tools that we have, and we’re seeing that develop faster and faster.”

Dodgers and the rest of the league are coming up with 2021 plans

Boehly’s comments come as the Dodgers and the other 29 MLB organizations begin planning safe ways to have fans in attendance for 2021. California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday that professional sports teams in his state can sell 20-25 percent of its seating capacity, but it would all depend on their virus control. If a venue is in the orange tier, then they will be able to have a maximum capacity of 20-percent. If the stadium is in the yellow tier, then their max capacity can be 25-percent.

Dodgers Stadium normally holds 56,000 fans. Based off Newsom’s guidelines, Dodgers games will only be able to carry 14,000 individuals at most.

We’ve seen stadiums across all sports allow a limited number of fans inside. In fact, MLB is currently allowing 11,500 fans inside Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas for the World Series. If this is successful without a spread of COVID-19, then it could possibly persuade government and public health officials across the United States to allow fans inside stadiums.

While 2021 has been touted as a potential return to normalcy, that’s simply wishful thinking. Until an effective vaccine is approved and mass produced, teams and stadium employees will have to rely on testing to prevent a potential spread of COVID-19. Even with the vaccine, social distancing and mask-wearing will still need to be enforced.

Boehly is correct in his assessment. Jam-packed stadiums and arenas won’t be a thing until 2022.