Major League Baseball officially will be back in Boston Friday night as the Red Sox will host the Orioles, but fans will not be in the stands.
This is the case across baseball, but appearing on The Greg Hill Show Friday morning, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy is hopeful that will change at some point this summer.
Kennedy detailed the process the Red Sox and the Patriots will need to go through.
"We're in it together with the Patriots, very close with their organization with Jonathan Kraft and Jim Nolan over there," he said. "We've been in constant contact and communication and worked together actually with them and Cam Neely and Amy Latimer and Julie Tyson of the PGA TOUR in presenting to the Massachusetts reopening advisory board, which Karyn Polito and her team have been overseeing.
"We will make our various presentations to that body, the advisory board, and then that will be taken to the governor for recommendation and then obviously the city, in our case city, needs to be on board — Mayor (Marty) Walsh and Kathryn Burton, his chief of staff. There's several layers, but the sports community is in this together. We are all operating on our individual plans to get fans back in a socially distanced, safe environment with face coverings and sanitization polices and procedures that will keep people safe.
"Again, we feel we can do it and again we feel we can do it because the data and the numbers here in the state and the city are in a good place. But, that is not our decision. It will be done at a time when our elected officials feel it's doable. We'll be ready.
"Major League Baseball also of course needs to approve our protocols and procedures as the have to get the seasons started. MLB is not allowing fans in the stands anywhere in the country. We're going to take a walk before we run type of attitude and approach to this. But, as soon as we get through hopefully a couple of weeks of the season we'll be able to revisit it and make that presentation alongside the other sports organizations and venues."
Gillette Stadium and the Patriots have already said if fans are allowed, it will be at 20 percent capacity.
