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Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott decided to allow stadiums around the sate to open to fans at 25% capacity and on Wednesday he raised capacity to 50% effective immediately, which is a great sign for sports returning with fans involved sooner rather than later, at least in the Lonestar state.
Gov. Abbott’s order, ‘Phase 3,’ of reopening stadiums at half capacity covers collegiate, professional and other similar sporting events.
“Stadiums, whether it be where the Mavericks play or the Texas Rangers play or the Dallas Cowboys play, will be able to seat [at] 50% capacity,” Abbott told KDFW-TV in Dallas.
Texas is preparing for an eventful couple of weeks. IndyCar is set to start its season at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on June 6, but with no fans in attendance. The PGA Tour will get its season back underway in Fort Worth as well on June 11-14 at the Charles Schwab Challenge. The first four events on the PGA Tour’s new schedule are set to take place without any spectators.
Texas announcing this new reopening phase involving stadiums comes just over a month after it was announced that most major universities around the state would reopen this fall as planned hopeful that football will be played. This decision from Abbott certainly increases those chances. Many schools around the country have already begun voluntary workouts on campus as student-athletes prepare, with fingers crossed, that sports will take place this fall.
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Mark is an associate editor at BroBible. Follow him on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris for the occasional good tweet. Feel free to contact him at Mark@BroBible.com.