The San Francisco Giants' home opener on Friday is going to be different due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Attendance will be limited to 22% capacity – about 9,000 fans – to accommodate social distancing. Every single one of those fans will have to prove that they have been vaccinated fully or have a clean COVID-19 test from the previous 72 hours.
Eddie Espinoza of San Francisco has his tickets and his key to get in the ballpark.
"Just got my COVID test back today, so I’m all set to go on Friday," he said.
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Eddie is bringing his mother Becky, who has proof of full vaccination, and a full understanding of why there’s so much COVID-19 concern.
"I have a family member that I lost to COVID and my girlfriend's mother was taken by COVID, so I don’t have a problem," Becky said.
On social media, some Giants fans are saying they would not have bought tickets if they had known that they’d have to have the COVID-19 documents.
The team's front office said they gave fans plenty of notice that they might be required, even before the city's health department announced the specifics.
"All of those folks are season ticket members, so we have great relationships with them and we encourage them to reach out to their customer relations rep and we will be as flexible as possible with them," Giants spokesperson Staci Slaughter said.
To expedite entry into the ballpark, fans can download the Clear Health Pass to their smartphone as proof of a clean test.
Some fans are still leery. Dan Fost has not only been a partial season ticket holder since the new ballpark opened, he’s written books about the Giants. But he doesn’t want to strike out against COVID-19.
"The virus is still spreading and there’s still a lot that we don’t know about how everything works, so even though I’m getting vaccinated, I just did not feel comfortable going out to a big crowd," he said.
