The 2020 MLB regular season is coming to an end – thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the league cut the 162-game regular season to 60 games but expanded the playoffs to a 16-team format.

Though the original plan was to hold all the playoff games in a bubble in Texas and California – meaning no audience attendance – the MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league wanted to have fans for the National League Championship Series and World Series.

"It's been grueling for everyone, the constant feeling of risk, the grinding, everything so different than the way we normally do things. The best way to say it is that 2020 presented some really, really difficult challenges for the sport, and I never worked harder to try to meet those challenges. I do take pride that we're just a few days away from finishing the (regular) season, an important milestone for the industry," said Manfred to USA TODAY.

"We are pressing ahead to have fans in Texas. One of the most important things to our game is the presence of fans. Starting down the path of having fans in stadiums, and in a safe and risk-free environment, is very, very important to our game."

The postseason will begin on September 29 and the NLCS is scheduled to happen at 40,300-seat Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas on October 12. Allowing fans attendance will require approval from Texas governmental officials.

Though this year's playoffs was expanded to 16 teams, Manfred made it clear that his plan was to expand the 10-team contest to a 14-team format if there was no coronavirus hit.

"Look, 16 teams, was a really good solution for the unique environment we had in 2020. But I want to be clear, when I talked about the expanded playoffs going forward before COVID ever hit, we never talked about 16 teams as a permanent solution. We never talked about more than 14 teams. Those plans addressed marginalizing the value of winning the division, and preserving the competitiveness through the regular season," said Manfred.