Reacts: Fans are comfortable with baseball returning, but not attending games

A poll of MLB fans shows that people are comfortable with baseball returning, but not with crowds in the stands

By Kyle Thele and Brady Klopfer May 26, 2020, 11:58am PDT

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Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged in Giants fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

Fans may be ready for baseball to return, but they aren’t exactly ready to return to baseball. Which feels like a sensible place to be.

In the most recent SB Nation Reacts survey, fans were asked a series of questions about baseball’s (potentially) impending return, which is tentatively scheduled for July. Here’s how the SB Nation hive mind feels.

Would you feel comfortable starting the season if you were a player?

If the responding fans were MLB players, they would feel comfortable playing the 2020 season. Roughly two-thirds of responses said they would play out the season.

Would you feel comfortable attending a game in 2020?

However, when asked if they were ready to return to the game themselves and watch a game in person, things changed dramatically. Despite being ready for games to start, only 42% of fans said they would attend a game live this year.

That’s still a surprisingly high number of fans that would apparently feel safe returning to the ballpark. Ultimately, what the fans feel comfortable with here doesn’t matter too much, as it seems highly unlikely that fans would be allowed inside a baseball stadium this year.

Fans can spot the real Rob Manfred

While fans are overwhelmingly ready for the game to return, they don’t necessarily trust the man in charge. Only 39% of voters believe that commissioner Rob Manfred has baseball’s best interests at heart. That number feels higher than it should be, but it’s good that fans are starting to see through Manfred, who seems to project an air of not actually liking baseball.