CLEVELAND — Earlier this week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced that he was consolidating the state's coronavirus (COVID-19) related health orders in a move that would also eliminate capacity limits at outdoor venues.
Asked at a press briefing on Thursday how the elimination of capacity limits would affect attendance at stadiums like Progressive Field, which had previously been capped at 30 percent, DeWine acknowledged that it could mean that more fans will be permitted to attend games. But he also noted that he didn't expect any increase in allowed attendance to be dramatic due to social distancing requirements and a limit of 10 people per seating pod.
"We didn't make a huge deal out of it, it was in the order, was we increased the size of the [seating] pods from six to 10 and at the same time, for outdoor, we took away capacity," DeWine said. "But saying you take away capacity but you still have to have social distancing and you have pods of 10 instead of six -- the Reds, the Indians, the different minor league teams could tell you how that changes it.
"It changes it some. It could allow some more people in, but it's not going to dramatically change it because of the distancing requirements. At least that's how the baseball teams have explained it to me."
You can watch Gov. Mike DeWine's full press briefing from Thursday in the video player below: