Baseball teams in Taiwan’s professional CPBL are to be allowed to play for full crowds, as stadiums are permitted to host fans at 100 percent of their seating capacity from Tuesday after having to cap attendance for the past two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the league said yesterday.
The green light to return to normal attendance was backed by a decision by the Central Epidemic Command Center to lift limits on the number of people who can gather indoors and outdoors in response to a stable COVID-19 situation in the nation.
The league on Friday told clubs that it had already verified with the Sports Administration that fan attendance at games can reach full capacity from Tuesday as long as disease prevention guidelines are followed.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
However, the exact date that the restriction at stadiums would be lifted is to be announced by the respective clubs, the CPBL said.
This is the first time since early last year that the CPBL has lifted restrictions on the number of fans allowed in stadiums.
When the pandemic began early last year, games were played behind closed doors before they were opened up to allow a maximum of 78 percent attendance in the second half of the season.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
This season saw a continued policy of allowing a maximum capacity of 78 percent, but the games were put on hold for two months starting in May in the wake of a spike in new domestic cases.
The games resumed in July behind closed doors before gradually opening up to allow 25 percent attendance and later 50 percent.
In yesterday’s games, the Uni-President Lions defeated the Fubon Guardians 6-5 at the Sinjhuang Stadium in New Taipei City.
At the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium, the Rakuten Monkeys beat the CTBC Brothers 6-4.
The Lions top the second-half table with a 26-3-17 record through 46 games.
The Brothers (47, 25-4-18) are 1 game behind, the Monkeys (44, 20-3-21) are five games behind and the Guardians (46, 18-3-25) are eight games behind the leaders.
The Wei Chuan Dragons (43, 17-1-25) are 8.5 games behind the leaders.
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