Sports have a financial incentive to keep pushing the envelope. If COVID numbers continue to fall — and with the deluge of vaccinations and the warm weather coming, they are expected to — it stands to reason the stands will just get more crowded. Assuming that Wrestlemania and the Rangers’ full-capacity events aren’t superspreaders (if that could even be determined afterward, given the still sad state of contact tracing), the gates will just open wider and wider. The Atlanta Braves are already preparing for a full-capacity crowd at the All-Star Game they’re hosting this July, and by then it surely won’t have been the first one. There’s every reason to believe stands will be full of fans by May — if not before.
Will the COVID numbers be low enough to justify that? It doesn’t particularly matter at this point. Even as the pandemic continues to slowly ebb, little of American life resembles “normal” at this point, and everyone’s definition of “normal” is different to begin with. But if one of the things you have missed most during the pandemic has been sitting at a sporting event with a beer as a crowd roars around you, that opportunity is coming soon. Teams would probably prefer if you, like me, waited until you were fully vaccinated to do so. But they will happily show you to your seat regardless. Sports is going to back to normal, ready or not.
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