South Carolina baseball increases capacity at Founders Park for rest of 2021
South Carolina baseball’s players and coaches have made no secret of how much they’ve enjoyed the team’s home field advantage at Founders Park this season — and starting this weekend, it could get even bigger.
USC announced Monday that it would allow for increased capacity at Founders Park for the rest of the 2021 season, going from 1,938 to 3,350 as statewide COVID-19 protocols are eased.
South Carolina had said before the season began that it was capping capacity at no more than 2,100 people in the stadium. Every game thus far, however, the Gamecocks have announced a capacity crowd of 1,938. According to the athletic department’s chief communications officer Charles Bloom, however, the actual number of tickets scanned has averaged 1,092 per game, bumping up to more than 1,300 at SEC games.
“All I can tell you is that as many fans as they’ll let in, I hope come,” USC coach Mark Kingston said April 11. “And whatever the powers that be say can come here, I hope we sell every ticket, because this is a fun team to watch and I know our fans love it and I know we have a lot of great baseball fans.”
The change comes just a few days before a massive series — No. 1 Arkansas is set to face the No. 11 Gamecocks starting Thursday in an SEC showdown that could have postseason implications.
The new capacity represents about 50% of all bleacher and fixed-back seats, the athletics department said, and will reduce the amount of distance between pods of seats from six to three feet.
The newly available tickets will go on sale first to baseball season ticket holders, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday. After that, tickets for the Arkansas series will also be available to Gamecock Club members until noon, Thursday. At that point, they will become available to the general public. For all remaining games after Arkansas, general public ticket games will start 10 a.m., Monday, April 26.
Increased capacities have become common across SEC baseball as of late. Both Ole Miss and Mississippi State have hosted crowds of more than 10,000 in recent weeks. Arkansas, Florida and LSU have all increased capacity as well.
This story was originally published April 19, 2021 at 4:14 PM.
