Nationals finally receive approval to use Nationals Park

The District of Columbia approved the Nationals waiver application to use Nationals Park, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Tuesday in a press conference.

The team was waiting to hear from the District on its application to open the facility for use during the coronavirus pandemic. The Nationals first workouts are scheduled for Friday. They have multiple days of testing and on-boarding to go through prior. July 1 is when Spring Training 2.0 can begin.

"The initial waiver was for training, then of course MLB announcing that games would resume," Christopher Rodriguez, Director of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, said. "We had discussions with the Nationals on what that would look like: no fans, no spectators. So they submitted plans that we approved to have the games."

The Nationals' season is slated to start July 23 at Nationals Park against the New York Yankees. Teams are allowed up to three exhibition games in this second iteration of spring training before the 60-game regular season begins. Washington playing Baltimore, for instance, is a possibility.

No baseball has been played inside Nationals Park since Oct. 27, 2019, when Washington lost Game 5 of the World Series to the Houston Astros before winning the series in Houston.

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