Colorado Rockies: Coors Field could possibly have fans in 2020…if there’s a season at all

Coors Field may be able to host some Colorado Rockies fans in 2020 if there ends up being a season at all.

Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reported on Thursday that if there is a season in 2020, Major League Baseball may allow local and municipal government to determine whether or not fans can be in attendance at games and what capacity would be allowed. If this is implemented, the Colorado Rockies may be at an advantage due to the size of Coors Field.

By capacity, Coors Field is the second-largest stadium in baseball only to Dodger Stadium. In fact, three of the top four stadiums by capacity reside in the NL West as Chase Field in Phoenix is fourth in baseball, behind Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

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Coors Field seats a capacity of 50,445 so, even if games do happen and only a capacity of 50 percent is allowed, they would still be able to a fair amount of people into games.

In the state of Texas, their governor Greg Abbott announced that all stadiums may increase their capacity up to 50 percent as of Friday. That includes all indoor and outdoor facilities. That would be a good thing for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets since the NBA announced yesterday that they will return in July for regular games.

Also, MLB’s Houston Astros and Texas Rangers fall into that category as well. The Rangers were slated to open up their brand new, retractable roof stadium in March but with the shutdown, the first public event they hosted was a graduation ceremony for a local high school.

If six-foot distancing is in place, the capacity of Coors Field would certainly be lower than 50 percent but to put that in place in Coors Field (or any other stadium, for that matter), there would have to be a fair amount of renovations to ensure the distancing.

That doesn’t matter, though, if there is no season. Commissioner Rob Manfred may unilaterally impose a new season but that move may be something that could increase labor tensions even more as the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement is set to expire after the 2021 season and that’s the last thing baseball needs: a strike less than two full seasons removed from having a shutdown.