UPDATE: After publication, we received the following statement from Aces President Eric Edelstein. The story has been updated to reflect these changes.
“We just got news that the season will now start May 6, with our home opener May 13. With that, we aren’t sure if the 20% will still be the number. We’ll continue to work for 20% approval but also hopeful for a little more attendance once we get to the new later date.”
New lighting, a brand new field, a severely reduced capacity and a whole lot of uncertainty face the Reno Aces as the minor league baseball team holds its season opener May 13, 2021.
“It’s still very tough at the moment, but I think there’s reason for optimism,” said Reno Aces President Eric Edelstein. “So we’re sort of seeing our way through what we hope is sort of the end of this really dark period where events are … essentially … non-existent.”
Greater Nevada Field will be open for the first time in more than a year at the team’s season opener. But the downtown stadium will likely be at significantly reduced capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Edelstein said he’s been working with county officials for what comes after May 1 when coronavirus restrictions fall under the county’s jurisdiction.
“We’re pro event and believe we can do it in a safe way,” he said. “We’re trying to take a proactive approach of … having good, honest dialogue with all those authorities …” he added.
At this point, the ballpark is expected to be at 20% capacity, but it remains unknown if the field will have more fans. That depends on what the county decides.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes indoor activities are riskier for the spread of the coronavirus disease versus outdoor activities.
“You are less likely to be exposed to COVID-19 when you attend outdoor activities, stay at least 6 feet apart [and] limit the amount of time spent with people who don’t live with you,” the agency states.
The reduced capacity means season ticket holders and partial plan holders will have priority for the limited seating.
“Our expectation is that our weekend games probably will be sold out just from season ticket and partial plan holders,” Edelstein said. “We have far more than 1,400 in that grouping already. So … in some cases, not everybody may even get all the dates that they want on those high priority dates. We want to make sure that if we’re only going to have 1,400 tickets, that everybody is selecting into the dates that they want to come to.”
Fans will notice improvements to the field that have been made over the past two years. Those include protective netting, new soil and turf and energy-efficient lighting.
“We went to an LED light structure,” Edelstein said. “They’re super cool; they turn on and off like a light switch in your house, so you can do all kinds of fun things, you can make them dance, you can do all kinds of light effects during the game, not like the old ones, where if you turn them off, you had to wait 20 minutes for them to fire back up.”
