Todd Boehly indicated that the Dodgers are working with public health officials on testing protocolsGETTY IMAGES
Dodgers co-Owner Todd Boehly said that the baseball industry "likely would not return to normal" until at least '22, according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. Boehly said, "We're looking for 2022 to start to feel normal again, while we work through this in 2021." Boehly indicated that the Dodgers are "considering how to be proactive in working with public health officials and helping to lead a community response, rather than just waiting for guidance." He said, "We’re starting to think a lot about, come March, what are the proper testing protocols, and how are we going to get fans back into stadiums, and how can we test at scale?" California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced that the state's professional sports teams "would be able to sell tickets to 20% of capacity if their county is in the orange tier, indicating moderate spread of the virus, and 25% of capacity if the county is in the yellow tier, indicating minimal spread." Neither L.A. nor Orange County has yet reached those tiers, but at 25% of capacity, the Dodgers could sell 14,000 seats at Dodger Stadium. Boehly said that he "did not expect the values of teams to decrease over the long term, even as revenues decline over the short term." Boehly: "We don't expect to be back to normal next year by any means. We would expect to be back to normal by 2022" (L.A. TIMES, 10/21).
