New York State continues to loosen its COVID-19 guidelines, allowing more people to get back to doing some of the things they love.
That’s particularly good news for the New York Mets and Yankees, as Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the capacity at outdoor stadiums will increase from 20% to 33% beginning on May 19.
“It’s still simple in the final analysis. It is a virus,” Cuomo said. “If you take precautions within the family when someone gets a virus, you can make sure that other people don’t get the virus. I look at New York as an extended family … we get vaccinated, we behave smartly, we will control the spread of the virus.”
At Citi Field in Queens, the capacity of Mets fans will bump from 8,492 to approximately 14,000 while in the Bronx, the Yankees can welcome nearly 18,000 — a considerable bump from the roughly 10,000 they were initially allowing into the building.
Last week, Cuomo announced that indoor arenas such as Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum will be able to increase their capacity from 10% to 25%, also beginning on May 19.
Hope still remains that sporting venues will be able to be completely filled by next season — most notably for the 2021 NFL campaign for the New York Giants, Jets, and Buffalo Bills.
Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group — which is overseeing the building of the New York Islanders’ new home, UBS Arena, at Belmont Park — said on Thursday that he believes the 17,000-plus-seat arena will be at 100% capacity by opening night this fall for the 2021-22 NHL season.
