Coronavirus Update New York City: NY Yankees, Mets to reopen stadiums with different capacity rules

Coronavirus update for NYC

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

NY Yankees, Mets to expand stadium capacity rules

Ryan Field has the latest capacity rules announced for Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the New York Yankees and Mets are reopening stadiums May 19 with different capacity rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated sections.

For vaccinated people -- normal seating with masks. Children under 16 can accompany.

For unvaccinated people -- 6 foot distancing with masks. 33% capacity in these sections.

"The crowd makes the game," Cuomo said. "TY cobb, everyone will tell you that. It's a different experience with the crowd. The crowd energizes, brings the rhythm, the dynamic into the stadium. Sports momentum, the crowd is part of the momentum. Great teams will say one of their greatest assets is their fan base. When the fans are with them, cheering, it's totally different feeling, especially a New York crowd, not a shy crowd. They don't sit there and clap politely. They let you know they are there, and they are in the game, so that's important."

The Mets, Yankees and state health department will team up to offer vaccine at the game.

"It's on your way," Cuomo said. "Stop and get the vaccine, and if you get a vaccine, you get a free ticket to a Yankee or Mets game. You get a vaccine, it's convenient anyway. If you get a vaccine, they will give you a free ticket to the game. And next time you go to a game, you can enjoy sitting next to a friend or family, which to me is a big part of the enjoyment of the game. We call that a New York home run."

Cuomo said he is able to announce the baseball news because of the dropping metrics.

Gov. Cuomo announces the new rules for baseball stadiums in New York.

The Yankees released a statement after Cuomo's announcement.

"We want to thank Governor Cuomo for his decision, which will allow more fans into Yankee Stadium and provide us additional opportunities to further encourage people to get vaccinated," the statement said. "We have been honored to host a vaccination site at Yankee Stadium over these last three months. If we can encourage more people to get vaccinated by giving away Yankees tickets, we are all in. So come to the ballpark, get vaccinated, and root for the Yankees! We also want to thank Mayor de Blasio, who also gave his strong support for this program."

Meanwhile, the Mets revealed that just 77% of their players have been vaccinated -- under Major League Baseball's tier 1 threshold of 85% that relaxes restrictions on teams.

The Yankees said they are "way over that 85% mark, virtually all of our players have been vaccinated."

Mets President Sandy Alderson, who wore a mask during the entire Cuomo news conference, acknowledged the vaccination hesitancy on his squad.

"We continue to work on it," Alderson said. "At this point its case by case, individual by individual campaign on our part. We continue to provide education and as time passes, we get one or two more every few days. We are not at that level yet and we see the kind of resistance within the framework of the team that we see publicly."

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