Will A's Open Season Playing in Front of Empty Stands?

With COVID-19 outbreak ballooning in the U.S., baseball is one of many sports considering the once unthinkable by keeping fans from ballparks as Opening Day looms.

For the moment, the A’s are linked with the rest of Major League Baseball teams – and the NBA, the NHL and Major League Soccer – in reacting to the emergence of COVID-19, the coronavirus, by limiting clubhouse access to the media and others deemed non-essential.

The disease has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization, and all major sporting organizations are trying to be part of the solution by listening to experts and following their advice.

The A’s players and staff aren’t crazy about having the clubhouse constricted, but they are trying to look at the bigger picture. The fact is that clubhouse restrictions may just be the beginning of a major reworking of the sport with spring training morphing into the regular season in just two weeks.

In Seattle, one of the major U.S. hubs of the contagion, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday morning restrictions on gatherings of more than 250 people, including at sporting events and concerts, in three counties including and surrounding Seattle. That would, presumably, include the Seattle Mariners.

Just 40 miles down I-880 from Oakland, San Jose’s SAP Center, home of the NHL San Jose Sharks, has cancelled all events – primarily including three Sharks games and five nights of Cirque de Soleil. Santa Clara County, of which San Jose is the biggest city, has banned mass gatherings.

Eight miles across San Francisco Bay, the A’s March 24 exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park has been cancelled. In addition, public gatherings in San Francisco have been limited to 1,000, meaning the Golden State Warriors will play in front of empty stands for the next two weeks.

Does that mean the A’s, who are scheduled to open the season with a four-game series at home in the Coliseum against the Minnesota Twins beginning March 26 followed by three games against the Houston Astros, will have games either cancelled or played without fans in the stands?

No decision has been made yet, but it seems likely that the latter is a possibility. While it’s unlikely that games would be cancelled, the chance of that is not zero. And the chance that games could be played without fans in attendance is real.

“That would be unfortunate, but again, that’s kind of the place where we are,” manager Bob Melvin told the assembled media in Mesa, Ariz. when asked about the possibility of playing in front of empty stands. “Hopefully this is a short-term thing. Because the intimacy of the fans being close to the field and the media being close to us … it’s really important to us.”

A’s closer Liam Hendriks all but shuddered when talking to the A’s media about the possibility of playing in stadiums to which fans are denied access.

“I’m not a big fan of no-fan games,” Hendriks said. “At the end of the day, we play the game for the fans; we don’t play the game for our personal gain. The only reason we have a game is because of the fans. Limiting the game for the fans seems pointless to me.

“I understand the theory behind it, safety and all this. But if that was such a big issue (erecting netting down the foul lines) would have been done 10 years ago rather than last year.”

A’s president Dave Kaval said in a statement that his club “will take the appropriate steps based on the situation to support public health and our community.

The Coliseum will have extra hand sanitizer and soap stations and will have enhanced cleaning before, during and after all games, particularly in restrooms and food areas.

Clearly, this is an evolving situation. Oakland was the disembarkation of the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship Grand Princess earlier this week. Care was taken to limit access to the public over health concerns, but there is no knowing what the immediate future is for Oakland, the East Bay and the Bay Area in general with the coronavirus outbreak spreading.