MLB Reportedly Changes Ticket Policy for Games Affected by COVID-19 amid Lawsuit

Major League Baseball will allow all 30 clubs to individually decide on a ticket policy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which will go against the league's usual policy preventing refunds.

The Los Angeles Times' Bill Shaikin relayed context:

"On a conference call, Major League Baseball informed team officials that they no longer needed to advise fans to hold onto those tickets. The decision clears the way for teams to announce refund policies for the games. The change comes one week after MLB and all 30 of its teams were named as defendants in a lawsuit over the failure to refund tickets. StubHub, the league’s official resale partner, and three other ticket outfits also were named as defendants."

New York natives Matthew Ajzenman and Susan Terry-Bazer filed a class-action suit against MLB and all 30 teams last week seeking a refund plan for purchased regular-season tickets to games that have been indefinitely postponed.

Opening Day was supposed to happen on March 26, but MLB announced the 2020 season would be delayed on March 12:

The league has not set a new date for the season to begin.

"Yet as of Tuesday, a typical team has already had about 15 games postponed, or nearly 20 percent of an 81-game schedule," USA Today's Gabe Lacques added. "By the end of May—a timeframe now unrealistic for games to begin—about 30 games, or more than a third of a team's home schedule, will be lost."

If and when baseball resumes for a 2020 season, all signs have pointed toward fans still being unable to use tickets for home games.

ESPN's Jeff Passan reported April 6 that the league's front office was discussing a plan to play games at empty stadiums in and around Phoenix, isolating all teams in Arizona. CBS Sports' R.J. Anderson followed that up April 22 with a report outlining a different isolation plan involving Arizona, Florida and Texas.

The league has not publicly committed to any plan or announced an Opening Day date.