Marc Stein: The Thunder announced March 2 they will not admit fans this season. The Blazers, I’m told, are optimistic they will get clearance for reduced crowds before regular season’s end. The Bulls are still trying “to determine if there is a timeline where fans can return to home games.
More on 2020-21 Season Plans
The Kings held a media walkthrough Friday to demonstrate the new fan experience as the team prepares to open its doors for the first time in more than a year. Only those who are fully vaccinated or have proof of a negative COVID-19 test will be allowed to attend games for now, but it’s a start for a franchise that has incurred huge financial losses due to the pandemic.
Under red-tier restrictions, the Kings can admit up to about 3,500 fans, but all ticketholders must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR or Antigen test completed within 72 hours of the event. The Kings said they are partnering with a testing facility in West Sacramento that will offer day-of-game testing at a discounted price for anyone with a ticket.
Michael Brice-Sandler: NEWS: D.C. has approved waivers to host fans at Capital One Arena for Wizards and Capitals games, effective immediately. Additionally, the Nationals and D.C. United will now be able to host fans at 25% capacity at Nats Park and Audi Field. Story tk.
Ted Leonsis: All of us @MSE are disappointed with the city’s failure to grant our waiver allowing fans to attend @Capitals & @WashWizards games this season. Our staff have worked tirelessly putting in place numerous infrastructure upgrades & health and safety protocols to protect fans & staff
Wes Goldberg: Here's Warriors President & COO @RickWelts discussing the "encouraging news" that fans may be allowed into Chase Center as soon as this month. "Our job now is to sit down with the county and make sure ... we can return Warriors fans into Chase Center."
California will allow indoor live events and performances to resume with limitations this month, the latest rules to be relaxed amid declining COVID-19 case rates and continuing vaccinations.
For larger-capacity venues, testing or proof of vaccination would be required and capacity limited to 20% in the red tier. The threshold would be 10%, or 2,000 people, in the orange tier — and could increase further to 35% if all attendees are tested or show proof of full vaccination.
Duane Rankin: #Suns will raise fan limit from 3,000 to "5,500-plus" starting April 7 vs. Utah, team officials said Wednesday. The "plus" is in suites. Attendance been little over 3K since going from 1,500 to 3,000 when Suns played Brooklyn Feb. 16. 1st had fans this season 2-7 vs. Boston.
After successfully hosting nearly 3,000 fans per game in socially distanced pods of 1-4 seats, the Charlotte Hornets will increase the capacity of fans at Spectrum Center from 15% to 25% – approximately 5,000 fans per game – starting with the team’s next home game on Friday, March 26 vs. Miami. The Hornets have worked with state and county authorities throughout the reopening process and have once again received approval for the increased capacity plan.
Breed acknowledged city officials also are working with the Warriors on a similar arrangement. “Once we finalize those plans, they will be made public,” Breed said, “and I’m really excited about that.” Her comments marked the most optimistic yet from a city official about the Warriors’ attempts to bring spectators back to Chase.
Christian Clark: Pelicans announce 3,700 fans will be allowed inside Smoothie King Center during the second half of the season, which starts tomorrow.
Today, Golden 1 Center announced it has received the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management designation from the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI). Another step toward preparing for the return of fans and guests, the WELL Health-Safety Rating for Facility Operations and Management is an evidence-based, third-party verified rating for all facilities, focused on operational policies, maintenance protocols, emergency plans and stakeholder education to address a current and post-COVID-19 environment and broader health and safety-related issues into the future.
As of April 1, limited fans will be returning to outdoor arenas like Dodgers Stadium. When it comes to Staples Center though, fans will have to wait a little bit longer. Sources revealed to AllClippers that Staples Center is hoping to have limited fans "a few months from now, in time for the playoffs."
There are no confirmed dates, but that is the general hope among those working for the arena. The ability to have those fans depends entirely on state and county rules, but with the way things are trending, there is real optimism about having fans in time for the playoffs.
In the wake of Gov. Abbott's removal of the mask mandate and "opening Texas 100%," effective March 10, the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars say they will not make any changes to their current protocols and capacities. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told WFAA, "Nothing will change. We will continue to follow NBA and city protocols."
The Charlotte Hornets will welcome back a limited number of fans at Spectrum Center, starting with the team’s game on Saturday, March 13, vs. the Toronto Raptors at 7 p.m. The Hornets’ reopening plan has been approved by state and county authorities, allowing the team to host fans at 15% capacity, which is approximately 3,000 fans per game.
Royce Young: The Thunder are telling season ticket holders they won’t be allowing any fans for the rest of the season. Right now, 17 teams are either allowing reduced capacity fans, or have plans to sometime later this month.
Joe Mussatto: In an email to season ticket holders: "The decision was based on several factors. The ultimate one being that the overall health and safety of our fans and our community is the most important thing to us."
Derek Bodner: Wells Fargo Center statement on Pennsylvania allowing indoor events to reach 15% capacity: "If city of Philadelphia matches new state restrictions or raises their own, fans can return to Wells Fargo Center for Flyers and 76ers games within days."
Jon Krawczynski: Tomorrow's home game v. Suns will be start of a few fans back in the arena. Wolves welcoming 250 family and friends of the organization for the game. After the All-Star break, Wolves say they will open up limited capacity for frontline workers.
Philadelphia will roll back some coronavirus restrictions starting Monday, including allowing spectators at sporting events, reopening senior centers for the first time since last March, and allowing food and drinks to be consumed in movie theaters.
Professional sports teams can have spectators. Outdoor venues such as Citizens Bank Park can have up to 2,500 people, while the largest indoor venues can have a maximum of 500 people. Those numbers are consistent with state guidelines.
Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center are welcoming fans back this week for the first time in nearly a year, since the COVID-19 pandemic turned pro sports upside down. Both venues are offering a limited inventory of tickets, already commanding prices as high as as $5,000.
Those who want to watch the Brooklyn Nets live and in person better have the deepest of pockets. The once-beleaguered franchise, which is finally seeing renewed success with their “Big Three” — power forward Kevin Durant and point guards James Harden and Kyrie Irving — is offering a luxe, exclusive experience for a select number of fans at a steep price: roughly $600 to $5,000 courtside, sources told The Post.
Barclays Center is the first major North American sports venue to package COVID-19 testing as part of its ticket price. Fans will be offered the chance to take a test mailed to them far enough in advance to get a green light to attend games, and then given a rapid test to confirm their negative COVID status before entering the building, with results coming in six minutes.
The Charlotte Hornets hope at least some fans can return to Spectrum Center as soon as next month, but team President Fred Whitfield cautioned that the NBA franchise will err on the side of public health before moving ahead. State and local government health mandates will be the ultimate arbiters. The NBA has largely left it up to teams and local health and government officials to determine when fans are allowed in arenas and how many.
“We’re working with the NBA to find out what other teams are learning,” Whitfield told the Charlotte Business Journal. The league “is going to gather all the data and information from all the teams, share what’s working, what’s not working, show us some fan survey results and hopefully help us be able to put together a compelling case … that we can host some amount of fans at some point.”
Whitfield added, “Hopefully in March, but who knows? A lot of it is going to be incumbent on what the numbers are, how many vaccines are being added — there are a lot of dynamics (health officials) are going to have to consider.”
Brian Lewis: Abbamondi: "For the remainder of the season we're donating a portion of ticket proceeds to support vaccination efforts in Brooklyn. We'd also like to thank our fans for their support this season and we are looking forward to bringing their energy back to Barclays Center!” #Nets
Gerald Bourguet: Suns announce they'll be increasing capacity for home games to 3,000 fans per game starting Feb. 16 against the Nets
Mike Vorkunov: MSG announces they'll allow 2,000 fans at each game, starting with Knicks-Warriors on Feb. 23 and Rangers-Bruins Feb. 26, after Gov. Cuomo announced that arenas are open for fans again at max 10% capacity and with PCR tests for fans 72 hours before the event.
Anthony Puccio: The Brooklyn Nets plan to host a limited number of fans at Barclays Center starting on February 23, a source told The Association. The plan is to allow 200 fans into the arena. Platinum season ticket holders will get first priority to purchase tickets.
Starting with Monday night’s home game against Minnesota, the Mavericks finally will have fans in American Airlines Center, but not just any fans: 1,500 essential workers, who will be admitted for free. “We owe so much to people who have put their lives at risk to make us safer,” said Mavs owner, Mark Cuban said in a news release. “Bringing them to a Mavs game is the least we can do!”
Shams Charania: The NBA has informed its 30 teams that the league on Friday will begin program of enhanced enforcement of face mask rules during games and will impose penalties on player or staff members who fail to comply, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
Tim Bontemps: This will go into effect sometime in the next week. The NBA is in the process of getting the masks to all 30 teams before requiring them to be worn. They’ll need to be worn in any situations where masks are required under the NBA’s protocols, including on the bench during games.
Ben Anderson: The @Utah Jazz announce Vivint Arena will open the upper bowl at Jazz games for socially distanced pod seating, beginning Feb. 2. The overall capacity will be 3,902 for season ticket members choosing to attend games. All health and safety precautions remain in place.
The Grizzlies will allow MVP season ticket holders to attend games starting Feb. 4 against the Houston Rockets. Season ticket holders received the news on Thursday in an email. This will raise capacity inside FedExForum to just under 2,000 fans, or 11% capacity. The Grizzlies have already allowed up to 74 season ticket holders to sit courtside as well as 220 additional fans in suites and club boxes.
All tickets will be digital and there will be x-ray machines to scan bags at entrances. Masks must be worn at all times and all attendees must fill out a COVID-19 survey online on game day before entering FedExForum. Fans sitting courtside are being tested for COVID-19 with a rapid test before entering.
Kerith Burke: Rick Welts said on Warriors Pregame Live they sent a proposal to the city to test fans and get them back inside Chase Center safely. Those conversations are ongoing. “We’re really hopeful, by end of the season, we can welcome fans back,” Welts said.
Marc Stein: The NBA will soon be up to nine teams allowing reduced crowds with Atlanta and Miami planning to start admitting fans this week, Indiana starting last week and Memphis allowing floor-seat and suite-ticket holders. Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, Orlando and Utah are the others
Every single NBA beat writer and national writer and broadcaster is going through this very same procedure every night they go to work at an NBA arena. The rules are clearly spelled out by the NBA, with everyone’s safety the foremost concern. Masks are mandatory at all times. You want a sip of water? You have to drink it in the concourse.
Media members have no choice but to adjust, and some beat writers are choosing to cover their teams from home -- unthinkable in journalism theory, a necessity at times during a pandemic. Things are going to remain this way for the foreseeable future, and it will not make NBA reporting any easier; simply more challenging. The more intrepid among us can handle it.
Under new media rules, after you pass your COVID test, you go to your assigned seat and stay there. Period. Unless you need a bathroom break. From the Nets' media seats in the 200 level (think “corner of the arena, halfway up”) one could see a pair of security guards come onto the court during every timeout, but there was nothing for them to do except go through the motions and look busy. There was no one inside the arena for them to crowd control.
Anthony Chiang: The Heat will have about 100 family members and team/player guests at tonight’s game against the Bucks. Although no set date yet on when fans will be allowed at AAA again, this is a small step forward.
Jeff McDonald: With Lakers in SA for two games this week, DeMar DeRozan applauds NBA for scheduling format that keeps a traveling team in one city for multiple dates. “You’ve got to understand they’re trying to limit travel as much as possible for health reasons. You’ve got to respect that.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ request for more fans at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse has been approved. Ohio Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud, who works for Governor Mike DeWine’s administration, informed the Cavaliers in a letter Tuesday afternoon that they will be granted a variance, allowing 1,944 spectators total, which is 10% of the arena’s capacity.
In the approval letter, the Cavs were informed that the number of spectators seated in a group cannot exceed six individuals from the same family or party in seating throughout the venue and all groups must have at least six feet of social distancing between them in all directions.
Facing projected losses of up to 40% in revenue for the 2020-21 season due to the loss of gate receipts, according to ESPN, players weighed the financial realities with the physical and mental toll of resuming play so quickly, leading to the shortest NBA offseason in history. “It was a no-brainer for us to start (early),” Monte Morris said. “It was something that some guys weren’t wanting to do so quick, just with the standard of being off, just getting done with basketball. Sometimes, you want to sit back and have a break.”
In an interview Tuesday morning, Nets and BSE Global CEO John Abbamondi told CNBC that the NBA will face huge losses without fans in the stands this season, but he’s hopeful that as things return to normal with COVID vaccines, arenas will be full again by the post-season. Abbamondi added he’s also hopeful that the NBA season will survive “bumps along this road” as the play resumes while the pandemic continues to rage across the country. The concern, he said, begins with players testing positive for the coronavirus.
Abbamondi told CNBC that NBA teams hope they’ll be able to welcome fans back in time for the postseason, when gate revenues —and team profits— are usually at their highest. In the meantime, the league has raised $900 million and will provide teams with $30 million each to stay afloat for the year. “We are optimistic that before this season is over, which will be in the summer of next year, things are going to look very different,” Abbamondi said. “There is a lot of caution, but there’s also a sense of optimism, and I think all Americans share that.”
Adam Spolane: Adam Silver just said on TNT that the NBA hasn't officially cancelled the 2021 All Star Game. They have cancelled the game in Indianapolis on the date it was scheduled for, but that doesn't mean the All Star Game won't be played
The Mavericks provided no timetable for returning crowds to the arena but said they will continue to work with Dallas County, AAC and NBA officials to “determine the best possible scenario” for a safe option.
One team executive described little conflict among his peers about whether playing games despite skyrocketing numbers of infections across the country is the right decision, citing the NBA’s preparation. Teams were issued nearly 160 pages of health and safety protocols this month.
And yet, the executive said, “do I think all 72 will be played for every team? No.” “When we went to Orlando, our expectation was that it was possible that we would have cases and that we would have to manage those and obviously that was as successful as we could have dreamed,” said David Weiss, the NBA’s senior vice president of player matters. “Now our expectation is that we’re going to have cases and we’ll have to manage those, especially given the backdrop of the country.
Mark Medina: Adam Silver projected the league would lose 40% in revenue if they completed an entire season without any fans. Six NBA teams are having some limited fans. TBD on how that plays out for the rest of the league.
KC Johnson: Speaking on a conference call, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said "we do anticipate there will be bumps in the road along the way" but remains confident league can complete 72-game season.
Eric Walden: Adam Silver, on a conference call, said that “it’s untenable” for the league to play a full season in a bubble environment, but that the league is starting now because “We’re comfortable with the health and safety protocols we’ve designed.”
The problem is that frequent testing is a reactive, and not a truly preventative means of stymieing an outbreak. A forgotten fact about the 2020 NBA bubble is that there were dozens of positive tests from staff, workers and other individuals involved with running the bubble. But the bubble was successful in preventing these cases from spilling over into the pool of players because of the hard barrier between the players and the rest of the bubble (and surrounding world). Bharti noted that “when you have something like the NBA’s bubble system, it’s defined by layers of increasing porosity around the tightly protected players [e.g., buffers between the players and the hotel staff, who move in and out of the bubble]. But once you’re in the inner bubble, the mixing and the contact rates inside of it are very high and the contacts are frequent. So if you take that configuration of frequency of contacts and intensity of contacts, and you try and do it without the peripheral buffers, you would very quickly end up in trouble because you wouldn’t have firebreaks between teams.”
The NBA schedule means more travel and frequent contact between teams. For all of the NBA’s problems with COVID-19, the structure of the NFL schedule facilitates more control over interactions between teams. That is, over 80% of teams usually play on a single day (Sunday, with most of the other matchups being single games on Thursday and Monday). And this schedule means that it is easier to control contacts through the rescheduling of games. For the 2020-21 season, the NBA has gone to lengths to change the schedule to prevent frequent travel and contacts (e.g., instituting a “series” structure as in the MLB, where teams play each other multiple times consecutively, all in one city).
The NBA may not have the personnel to withstand player losses that will come with team outbreaks. One of the largest threats to the NBA’s well-being resides in one of its strengths. That is, the league has risen to prominence so rapidly in part because it is a player- and personality-driven sport. And it is that way because teams are not composed of large armies of faceless individuals who can easily be replaced. Rather, basketball is a great sport specifically because singular performers have such a large influence. And part of this is reflected in the size of NBA rosters: 15 players, of which 13 are active at any given time. Because of this, an outbreak among three players on a given team would be much more challenging to compensate for than in the NFL, with its larger roster (53 players) and practice squad reservoirs. Given the interconnectedness of the schedules and frequency of travel, an outbreak on one team could have ripple effects throughout the league, complicating the schedules of other teams.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in an interview with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith on Monday that the league will never "jump the line in any form whatsoever" when it comes to its players receiving COVID-19 vaccines and that the league plans to work with the government on public service campaigns to promote the importance of taking a vaccine. "There's no way we'd ever jump the line in any form whatsoever," Silver said. "And, for the most part, because our players are so young and healthy without some sort of comorbidity, they will not be a high priority for vaccinations. There are some other members of the NBA community working on court who are older and will have a higher priority to get the vaccine.
Adam Silver: The forthcoming season requires a new approach. We’ll no doubt face challenges, but like people everywhere, we want to work if we can do so safely and responsibly. The NBA is no different than many other organizations trying to find their way through the pandemic by balancing several factors, including the potential for significant economic hardship. We are part of a U.S. sports industry that is responsible for 1.3 million jobs. Tens of thousands of people rely on our league and related businesses for their livelihoods.
Adam Silver: In the same way we prepared for our bubble, we’ve designed thorough health and safety protocols in consultation with public health and medical experts, the National Basketball Players Association and our teams that will allow us to return to our arenas. Many of the core principles that we relied on in Florida — daily testing, physical distancing, mask wearing and frequent hand-washing — continue to guide our efforts and the health and safety of everyone remains our top priority. Our season opens Tuesday night and we recognize the journey won’t be without obstacles. It will require extraordinary commitment from players, coaches and staff. But we want to get back to work – safely and responsibly.
“We know there are going to be challenges and bumps, but so far things are good and we’re optimistic that we have a plan that we can work through those challenges and bumps,” said David Weiss, the N.B.A.’s vice president of player matters. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said: “We won’t be able to eliminate cases and outbreaks. But if we can minimize them, then hopefully it can be as close to a normal season as possible.”
“We expected that the numbers would go down during this first phase of testing, as people started following the protocols,” Weiss said. “At the same time, we know that doesn’t mean that we won’t have cases. We know we’re not in the clear, and we can’t get complacent. We have to stay vigilant with the protocols. That’s how we succeed.”
Peter Edmiston: Grizzlies announce that games at @FedExForum will be played without fans for the foreseeable future, based on discussions with local health officials. Given that Tennessee has the highest covid rate on the planet, that seems wise.
Marc Stein: After allowing a small number of fans into its two home preseason games, Memphis has amended that policy — no fans when the regular season begins. That takes the NBA down to six teams allowing reduced crowds: Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, Orlando, Toronto (in Tampa, Fla.), Utah.
