New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday he is hoping baseball can return soon and made his feelings known to Mets COO Jeff Wilpon.
But with one caveat.
“I said why can’t we talk about a baseball season with nobody in the stands? Why can’t you play the game with the players,” Cuomo told his brother Chris on CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” Wednesday. “I think it would be good for the country. I think it would be good for people to have something to watch and do. To fight cabin fever. I think it’s something I’m going to pursue.”
Gov. Cuomo said he wants the games to be played even without the fans as a holistic approach. MLB officials recently floated a plan to put all 30 teams in the Phoenix area in empty ballparks to start the season.
“Apparently Major League Baseball would have to make a deal with the players because if you have no one in the stands, then the numbers are going to change, right? The economics are going to change. But if Major League Baseball and the players could come into an agreement on how to adjust the economics for that reality, I think that would be a good thing. You know we have to start to move to normalcy and people have to see some sort of hope and light.”
Politicians throughout the country, such as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, have expressed pessimism about large sports gathering being held this calendar year.
Earlier Wednesday, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio told CNN’s “New Day” that it would most likely be months before fans would be able to return to Yankee Stadium and that he is “not confident” the city will host large gatherings in June, July, or August.
“I think it’s going to be a while,” said de Blasio. “I think that’s one of the things later in the trajectory.”
— With Julia Marsh