“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball,” Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby said. “I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
And the wait goes on.
Major League Baseball is still trying to figure out how to cope with the coronavirus pandemic that dramatically altered its 2020 season and now looms over 2021.
Spring training will likely be delayed, and there’s a discussion that the 2021 season could be sliced from 162 games down to, perhaps, 140. The MLB Players Association is still insisting on a 162-game season, but that might not be possible, at least not with fans in the stands. So that means more lost revenue for MLB teams, scores of players unsure about which team they will play for and fans left in limbo.
Consider the position the Rockies find themselves in.
In 2019, 2,992,244 fans attended games at Coors Field; an average of 36,954 per game, sixth-best in Major League Baseball. This for a team that won 71 games. There is no indication when fans will be able to attend games again, and if they’ll have the same passion when gates re-open.
Stephanie Lasser — a Denver resident and hard-core Rockies fan — finds herself losing interest in the sport. She’s attended spring training in Arizona four times, schedules business trips around the MLB schedule and has been to 21 big-league ballparks.
“I never miss a Rockies game,” she said. “I’ve either watched in person, on TV, listened to the radio, or followed them through my MLB app when traveling for business.”
While she still plans to invest in a shared season-ticket plan for 2021, if fans are allowed, she’s lost some of her passion.
“I was obsessed with baseball in general, and of course the Rockies,” she said. “When the 2020 season was postponed I was disappointed. And then I didn’t miss it. At all. Once games started, I tried to get excited but I just couldn’t. It got to the point where I wasn’t even checking the scores. I am not sure if it’s the pandemic or the Rockies not playing well, or perhaps a combination of both.
“I’m concerned about what happens next for me as a baseball fan. I really hope my passion hasn’t dissipated. I guess I will find out when the 2021 season — hopefully — rolls around.”
Lasser is not alone with her conflicted feelings.
“Recognizing the tragedy and true hardship that so many people have suffered due to the pandemic, I honestly haven’t allowed myself to dwell on the comparatively minimal impact I have felt,” said Littleton’s David Hutchinson. “But damn, I missed watching baseball at Coors Field. For me, the thing that separates baseball from other sports is that I love the experience of being at a game without regard to whether the Rockies win or lose, or where they reside in the standings. Summer didn’t really feel like summer this year.
“I would say also that my overall interest in sports during the pandemic has taken a dive. I don’t think I spent 12 hours total watching the Rockies (last summer). Even during their strong start, I felt like the whole thing was a gimmick.”
As baseball adjusted to the pandemic, rules were altered for a game that has always been resistant to change. As MLB scrambled to complete its 60-game season, it introduced seven-inning games for doubleheaders, added the designated hitter to the National League, used the so-called “California tiebreaker” to decide extra-inning games and expanded the playoff field to 16 teams.
Yet Rockies fans appeared to lose interest, as reflected in the team’s sinking television ratings.
Overall viewership for MLB games was up 4.2% for the 60-game regular season in 2020, but Rockies viewership dropped 24%, according to Forbes. That came on the heels of the 2019 season when the Rockies’ TV ratings dipped 18% from 2018, when Colorado made the playoffs.
The Rockies lost $174.4 million this past season, according to an estimate from Team Marketing Report. The season didn’t begin until late July and there were no fans allowed in the stands during the regular season. According to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, baseball’s 30 franchises took on an unprecedented $8.3 billion of debt and posted close to $3 billion in operating losses.
Rockies owner Dick Monfort made it clear in a letter to season-ticket holders after the season that the Rockies were cutting payroll for the first time in seven years and wouldn’t be pursuing high-priced free agents.
“There will be nothing normal about this offseason as the industry faces a new economic reality, and each club will have to adjust,” Monfort wrote.
Little wonder baseball’s hot stove season is barely percolating and more than 160 free agents are still looking for contracts. The only certainty is that it’s going to take a while before baseball returns to normal. Meanwhile, fans cling to the hope that they can get back in stadiums next year.
“I missed the excitement of the season,” said Ed Scott of Centennial, who’s been a Rockies fan since the team’s inception in 1993. “And the shortened season did not seem right. It seemed like just an exhibition season. The lack of fans in the stands made it hard to watch the game, and so did having the announcers socially distanced. The fake noise did not seem right.
“So I’m eager to get back to Coors Field — when it is safe! I am not convinced that we’ll be ready for the start of 2021. The Rockies are wanting my season-ticket money and I cannot rationalize giving them the money when I am not sure there will be a season.”
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