Baseball without fans? Why that isn’t a viable option for Phillies’ locally owned minor-league clubs.

Take it from none other than Dr. Anthony Fauci, the widely respected infectious-disease expert and member of the White House’s coronavirus task force: If pro sports leagues return in 2020, it almost certainly will be in empty stadiums with fans watching the games exclusively on television.

Swell. But that doesn’t really work for minor-league baseball teams.

“While there is a value in the purest sense in executing a baseball game [without fans], it just doesn’t seem practical,” said Joe Ricciutti, president and general manager of the Lakewood BlueClaws, a single-A affiliate of the Phillies since 2001. “Our business model, like all [minor-league baseball] teams, relies on people being in the ballpark.”

Ricciutti had expected a big crowd Thursday night at FirstEnergy Park, roughly 65 miles from Philadelphia in central New Jersey. It was supposed to have been the BlueClaws’ home opener against the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Bryson Stott, the Phillies’ first-round pick last June, might have played shortstop. Buster, the furry yellow mascot, definitely would have made people laugh.

Instead, the BlueClaws hosted “Virtual Opening Night” on their Twitter feed, where they encouraged fans to share videos of themselves singing the national anthem, throwing ceremonial first pitches, and playing ball in their yard. They even had “virtual” postgame fireworks.

Not the same, of course. For now, though, in these unprecedented times, it was the best that anyone could do.

But there’s a limit to that kind of creativity for locally owned minor-league clubs. Although Major League Baseball couldn’t survive over the long haul without fans, the league derived only about 40% of its record $10.7 billion revenues last year from ticket sales, suite rentals, parking, concessions, and advertising. Much of the rest came from lucrative television deals that don’t exist as a revenue stream down on the farm.

Minor-league teams depend on fan engagement and interaction as the lifeblood of their small, largely seasonal business. Even one rainout that isn’t made up can wreak havoc with balance sheets. As much as team employees pound the pavement to secure corporate sponsorships, they might work even harder to draw fans to the ballpark.

But the Chinese Professional Baseball League restarted its season last weekend with only mannequins in the seats. The Korean Baseball Organization plans to open later this month in empty ballparks. And MLB has all but conceded that fans won’t be part of whatever radical idea it might adopt for attempting to start the season safely amid the pandemic.

In sports, that’s the new short-term (they hope) reality.

“It’s a challenge,” Ricciutti said this week. “MiLB teams make all of their annual revenue in just a few short months, so every game is critical. The business model relies on people in our venues. Without being able to have public occupancy, any other event activity that could help make up some lost ground also is not permitted. There is no amount of savings that a typical MiLB team can do that would absorb this kind of impact.”

If the minor-league season isn’t played, teams would have to credit or refund tickets and sponsorship money. Some have applied for loans through the Small Business Administration. But for businesses that operate from April through August, a lost season could be crippling, especially at a time when MLB has expressed interest in restructuring the minor-league system and potentially contracting as many as 42 teams.

The BlueClaws, owned by Shore Town Baseball, have not made temporary reductions to a staff of 35 full-time employees, according to Ricciutti, who said staffers are “busy reaching out to season-ticket holders, group leaders, corporate partners, and community partners to check in and keep them updated.”

Like the BlueClaws, the triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs are a locally owned full-season Phillies affiliate. (The Phillies own their double-A team in Reading and single-A club in Clearwater, Fla.) The Williamsport Crosscutters, a short-season single-A club that was included last fall on MLB’s internal list of teams that could be contracted under the proposed plan, are locally owned and not due to open at home until June 19.

Reached by email this week, IronPigs co-owner Joe Finley declined to discuss the challenges to the team’s finances and business operations. Team president/GM Kurt Landes deferred to statements posted on the club’s website, in which it pledged its support to community relief efforts in the Lehigh Valley.

To that end, the IronPigs started a GoFundMe page and sold “In This Together” T-shirts to benefit local health-care workers. They plan to promote those initiatives on local telecasts of their first two home games, which are slated to be played virtually through MLB The Show on Friday and Saturday nights.

The BlueClaws are using their presence in the community to lend a hand, too.

Lakewood is one of the hardest-hit New Jersey towns, with more than 1,100 confirmed COVID-19 cases through Wednesday. Ricciutti said the team has donated several hundred rain ponchos to area health workers and recorded public-service announcements on behalf of a local health-care partner to help reduce the spread of the virus. The team is also getting the word out about local restaurants and other business partners that are open and providing services.

“We want to know how [corporate partners] are doing, how their families and employees are doing,” Ricciutti said. “As far as the business side of the partnerships, we are constantly looking for ways to deploy some of the partnership elements, like social media or the large digital billboards on a main road, to assist them right now.”

And when fans are finally cleared to return to the ballpark, the BlueClaws and other minor-league teams will depend on their communities to return that embrace.

“We have been a big part of the Ocean and Monmouth County communities for the last 20 years and miss being the place where fans, friends, and families can come together and celebrate being together,” Ricciutti said. “We are looking forward to being able to welcome our fans back to the ballpark.”