With the growing concerns of the Coronavirus outbreak, it was only a matter of time before the world of sports would be affected.
On Friday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver asked teams to begin to put plans in place if the league deems fit to have to play games without fans in the seats, as the widespread virus continues to have new cases daily in different areas of country and world.
In addition to fans, members of the media and other people normally in the arena during games could also be kept from the games.
On Friday, the San Francisco Department of Public Health strongly urged the NBA that the Golden State Warriors should consider canceling or postponing Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers. As of Saturday morning, there were no plans by the team or league to not play the game as scheduled. The urging was in response to the city’s first two positive tests for the coronavirus on Thursday.
The Coronavirus has infected more than 95,000 people worldwide, with more than 3,000 deaths reported. Of those cases, only fifteen of those deaths have been in the United States, thus far.
The league recommended earlier that players should limit their typical interaction with fans, as the concern and fears over the virus, and it’s seemingly easy transmission and the contagious rate was continuing to grow.
I wouldn’t be surprised if other leagues like Major League Baseball follow suit as their regular season is set to get underway in the next couple weeks.
But it would be weird for the players to play in an empty arena every night.
