Fenway Park in COVID

Fenway Park in COVID

Olivia Bene

English

Fenway Park is hailed as America’s Most Beloved Ballpark and is a site baseball fans across the country make it a bucket list place to visit. The capacity of the park is 37,731 and it is very rowdy when full. I started working here in March of 2021 when the league decided it was safe to bring fans back in some capacity after the previous season of empty ballparks. The city of Boston had been very meticulous in the process of deciding how public spaces should run and what capacity would be acceptable. Masks are to be worn in the park at all times, all forms of payment are contactless, the hawkers (people selling food in the stands) are not in commission, all tickets are mobile, symptom surveys had to be completed prior to park entry, and massive sections of the park were off-limits. On Opening Day, Fenway Park had an approved capacity of 12%. The math works out to 4527 fans. That looks pretty barren when they’re all socially distanced plus you can hear all of the heckling, screaming, cheering, etc., on the broadcast due to the lack of general background noise. My sections, which would usually hold 200+ people, were now diminished into 10-20 maximum.
In May, Boston started allowing 22% capacity, meaning 8300 fans now walking through the gates. The ballpark still felt empty and seemed to be missing the electricity it is usually known for. My job was less about making sure fans were having positive experiences and being safe and more about handling people not willing to follow the COVID protocols.
In July, Fenway made the jump to 100% with requirements to wear masks indoors. The imprints of the pandemic still linger in the parks in the forms of socially distanced Red Sox signs, wally with a mask, and permanent “mask up indoors” signs on all of the doors of the park.

2020

Boston, MA 02215