For a while, MLB had been holding fast to its postponement policy as it related to ticket refunds – i.e., until your game was officially cancelled, you won’t get money back for your ticket – treating COVID-19 like a really, really long rainout.
But with it crystal clear that a full season will not be made up, and it even crystal-y clearer-y that no games this year will have full attendance permitted (if any attendance is permitted at any time at all), fans were getting increasingly restless about teams effectively holding their funds as an interest-free loan. Lawsuits were filed.
Thus, it was time for MLB to make a move:
MLB reverses ticket policy, clearing way for teams to offer refunds to fans: https://t.co/Bz5dliI2Kk
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) April 28, 2020
It will be up to the individual teams to decide what to do about COVID-19-impacted games, though I suspect most will permit refunds for games that have already passed, while trying to entice fans to roll funds over to 2021 (the Cubs, for example, have already offered fans 5% interest in funds rolled over to 2021).
This is a much more fan-friendly approach to the situation, and MLB is doing the right thing. It will be interesting to observe what happens at the team level, however, as there are many MLB teams that run a pretty tight annual budget, and a sudden outflow of cash could cause issues.