Phillies are waiting for Pa. to increase limits on bringing fans back to Citizens Bank Park

Friday’s announcement by the city to ease restrictions on attendance at sporting events was a reason for optimism, but the Phillies will need more before they can host the crowd size they are hoping for.

The Phillies’ proposal earlier this month to the city about fans returning to Citizens Bank Park exceeds the state’s current threshold of 5% capacity for outdoor venues. Friday’s decision by the city would allow 2,150 people per game at Citizens Bank Park.

That number not only includes fans, team employees, stadium staff, players, coaches, and media members. The city can not be less restrictive than the state, therefore the Phillies would only be able to sell about 1,500 tickets — less than they are able to have at spring training games and far fewer than they are hoping for — unless the state relaxes limitations.

The Flyers and Sixers are also awaiting a decision from the state, which could come this week.

“I think people are eager to go to ballparks and eager to go to sporting events to try to get it back to what it was before,” Bryce Harper said. “I think getting out of their houses and into stadiums if they feel safe and want to do it then it’s great for us and it’s great for the game and for them as well. The mental capacity of putting people in stadiums is going to be so much fun for them and getting families back together in the summertime, seeing the Phanatic again and stuff like that. It’s such a cool thing to think about and I’m excited to hopefully get them back in there and hopefully the state of Pennsylvania can figure that out for us.”

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The Phillies played 30 home games last summer without fans. They pumped in crowd noise, filled the seats with cardboard cutouts, and tried to make it feel as normal as possible. But it was still a quiet summer at the ballpark. Sunday’s Grapefruit League game in Lakeland, Fla. against the Tigers will be the first time they play in front of fans since last March. The Phillies will have fans at all 14 of their spring training games in Clearwater.

“It was never normal, but you got used to it. I don’t know if you’re allowed to put it that way, but that’s the way I put it. There was an expectation that there weren’t going to be fans there,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I think it will feel normal when we have fans. You would listen to the crowd noise last year and it just doesn’t sound the same as crowd noise. Even though it was taken from crowd noise, it was just different. But I think you got somewhat used to it because you can develop habits in a short period of time. If you do something enough, you get used to it. But it doesn’t feel normal.”

Adam Haseley and Scott Kingery will both be in the starting lineup for Sunday’s spring opener as the Phillies are wasting little time with their center-field competition. Haseley, Kingery, and Roman Quinn begin Grapefruit League play as the main competitors, but Odubel Herrera — one of the 18 players at “mini camp” — is expected to enter the race.

Sunday’s lineup will also include outfielders Mickey Moniak and Travis Jankowski, first baseman Darick Hall, infielder C.J Chatham, third baseman Alec Bohm, catcher Jeff Mathis, and starting pitcher Ivan Nova. All of the focus will be on Kingery and Haseley.

“I’m eager. I’m curious to see how this is going to shake out,” Girardi said. “Roman looks good. Haseley is a little stronger this year, he’s a little bit bigger, which I think is just fine. But I’m curious because there’s a lot of guys fighting for this spot. It’s not just two guys. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.”

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Aaron Nola will start Monday’s game in Clearwater against the Orioles. It will be televised by NBC Sports Philadelphia+ … Didi Gregorius and Christian Bethancourt both arrived in camp Saturday after clearing their intake testing. Ranger Suarez and Francisco Morales took their intake tests on Saturday.