Texas Rangers allowing 100 percent capacity for Opening Day

The Texas Rangers have decided they will host a full stadium at Globe Life Field on Opening Day.

Major League Baseball teams are trying to figure out their individual attendance limits and policies to open the 2021 season. The Texas Rangers have gone ahead and done away with the idea of limited capacity.

Rangers beat reporter Evan Grant broke the news that the team is going to host a full crowd on Opening Day, with masks being required for all those in attendance.

Rangers opening up with a full crowd

The Baltimore Orioles being allowed to open at 50 percent capacity seemed like big news earlier this week. The Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox announced they’ll have 20 percent capacity on Monday. Most parks are operating between those two numbers. Now the Rangers have blown past that figure and could pack in more than 40,000 fans on Opening Day.

Similar to Texas Governor Greg Abbott lifting COVID restrictions, including the mask mandate, the Rangers are acting as if everything is back to normal.

COVID-19 rules vary from state to state, but private businesses can still enforce mask-wearing rules. The Rangers are keeping their own mandate in place, so it will be interesting to see how that is enforced.

Grant also reported there will be socially-distanced sections for fans later this year. But Opening Day is going to be packed if enough fans want to show up.

This is somewhat of a surprise and also not in the same sense. Fans in Texas may have been expecting this to happen after the statewide mask mandate was repealed. However, fans in other states may be looking at this news in shock.

Life is going to begin returning to some sort of normal soon. Professional sports provide a good gauge of society as a whole and the Rangers will be in focus right away. But any further COVID-19 spread as a result of a full stadium would need to be addressed right away.