For the first time since the 2019 season, fans will be allowed to attend Dodgers games at Dodger Stadium starting on Opening Day.
In accordance with state and county health and safety COVID-19 guidelines, the Dodgers will be allowed to sell 20 percent of their tickets for each home game — roughly 11,000 — to begin the season. Earlier this month, the state of California announced a tiered system that will dictate how many fans are allowed at outdoor stadiums. Los Angeles County is currently in the red tier. If coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continue to fall, the county could soon move into the orange tier, which would bump fan attendance up to 33 percent, and then into the yellow tier, which could see Dodger Stadium at 67 percent of its 56,000-seat capacity.
The team emailed season-ticket holders on Thursday to announce that it will soon begin selling tickets for home dates from April 9 through June 2, a period that will cover the April 9 home opener against the Washington Nationals plus additional home games.
Season-ticket holders will have the opportunity to choose between two 14-game plans that do not include Opening Day. Because only 20 percent of the stadium’s seating inventory will be available, most season-ticket holders will have to be relocated into pod seating. The team is setting up pods between two and six seats that will reflect the number of season tickets in an account holder’s group, so a fan with four season tickets will be given the opportunity to buy four tickets together in a pod.
Pods will be placed six feet apart from other pods. If season-ticket holders want to resell their tickets, they will be required to sell the entire pod.
A limited number of single-game tickets will be held back for the general public. Those tickets will go on sale later this month, but the Dodgers have not yet determined that date. A team spokesman said the number of single-game tickets for the general public will also be determined by how many season-ticket holders purchase 14-game plans.
Fans looking to buy single-game tickets for Opening Day will enter an online lottery similar to the way the Dodgers have done postseason ticketing in recent years.
Tickets for Opening Day will not be included in the 14-game plans that season-ticket holders can buy. All season-ticket holders will be given the option to purchase tickets to Opening Day in a specific window, but it won’t be possible to accommodate everyone since the number of season-ticket holders exceeds the 11,000-seat availability. The Dodgers did not divulge the number of season-ticket holders.
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Opening Day figures to be a hot ticket. A team spokesman said the current plan is for the Dodgers to receive their World Series championship rings that day. The spokesman also said the team had not yet decided if it will raise the 2020 World Series banner on Opening Day, but added that there will be a commemorative ceremony.
Premium season-ticket holders will be given a chance to choose seven home games if they want to stay in the premium seating area, or 14 games if they are willing to be relocated.
If COVID-19 rates continue to fall in L.A. and the county moves into the yellow tier before June 2, it’s possible the Dodgers will be allowed to sell additional tickets to games before that date. But in adding more fans, the team will have to continue health and safety protocols to make sure the pod seating follows social-distancing guidelines.
The Dodgers said all parking must be purchased in advance. The team is still waiting for guidance from the county on how to handle concession sales.
Before last season, when the pandemic kept fans out of stadiums throughout the sport, the Dodgers led all of Major League Baseball in home attendance for the seventh consecutive season. In 2019, they averaged 49,065 fans per game at Dodger Stadium. The team with the next highest average was St. Louis with 42,967.
The Dodgers’ status as reigning World Series champions — plus the public’s eagerness to get back to the stadium after more than a year away — all but ensures that ticket demand will far exceed supply, at least for the first few months of the season.
But at least now, we can say for certain that when the team receives its rings on Opening Day, 11,000 lucky fans will be there in person to see it.
(Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)
