With COVID-19 vaccinations continuing across the state of Illinois, the White Sox are taking another step closer towards allowing full attendance at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The team announced that beginning with the next homestand on May 24th, they will be allowing 60% capacity following the approval from public health officials and city and state leadership. This means approximately 24,300 fans will be allowed into the ballpark, which is a drastic increase to the 8,393 fans who attended Wednesday night’s game.
“We have been working toward this moment and have always looked forward to welcoming more fans back to Guaranteed Rate Field in a safe and responsible way,” said Brooks Boyer, White Sox chief revenue and marketing officer. “We have seen great success providing a safe and enjoyable gameday experience for guests in April, and as we see more people get vaccinated, we are thrilled to bring more fans into the ballpark to experience White Sox baseball in person and cheer on our first-place team on the field.”
In addition, the organization announced that for this weekend’s four games against Kansas City, there will be two vaccinated-only sections. Beginning with the first game of Friday’s doubleheader, anyone who purchases tickets in the vaccinated only sections, located in the 108 and 109, will have to present their vaccination cards and a photo ID upon entering the ballpark. As the designation alludes to, fans will be seated without any sort of physical distancing. These tickets will be going on sale Thursday (today) beginning at 3 p.m. over on the White Sox website.
This news from the organization follows several other announcements from teams, most notably the Milwaukee Brewers due to their close proximity. In addition to an increased capacity at their upcoming home games, the Brewers have said they expect full capacity beginning on June 25th.
Though nothing has been made official by the White Sox yet, Chicago currently plans to fully reopen and enter Phase 5 of its COVID-19 reopening plan beginning on June 11th, per NBC 5 Chicago. Assuming there’s no major setbacks, it seems safe to assume a full house could be coming to the South Side as soon as June 14th or more likely, June 25th.
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