MARCH 11, 12:13pm: The City of San Francisco has banned public gatherings of 1,000+ people for the next two weeks, according to Connor Letourneau of The San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter links).
The Warriors have two home games during that stretch – Thursday vs. Brooklyn and March 25 vs. Atlanta – so we should get an update soon on the organization’s plans for those games.
MARCH 10, 10:54pm: The Warriors could be the first NBA team whose home games are jeopardized by the coronavirus. There are “strong, strong, strong indications” that Golden State’s home game on Tuesday is likely to be the last one in the area not played in an empty arena for a while, Tim Kawakami of The Athletic tweets.
There will soon be a clear decision and announcement on sports events in the San Francisco area, Kawakami adds. The Warriors moved into their new arena in San Francisco this fall.
Fear of the virus apparently impacted attendance on the Warriors’ game against the Clippers, as Monte Poole from NBC Sports Bay Area tweeted out a photo of pockets of empty seats in the normally filled area. The Warriors are scheduled to play another home game against the Nets on Thursday, then embark on a road trip before returning to play the Hawks on March 25.
The league is scheduled to hold a conference call with team owners and governors on Wednesday to discuss the matter.
The virus has already impacted a conference basketball tournament at an NBA venue. The Mid-American Conference tournament, which will be held in Rockets Mortgage Fieldhouse — the Cavaliers’ home area — will be closed to the general public. That decision came hours after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recommended that sporting events at indoor facilities in the state take place without spectators.
The NHL’s San Jose Sharks are pondering what to do with their home games after Santa Clara County’s Public Health Department announced on Monday a mandatory order requiring cancellation of “mass gatherings” of more than 1,000 people for three weeks. The Sharks appear to be leaning toward playing those games in their home arena without fans, rather than moving them to a neutral or road site.
A lot of empty seats are probably due to the Warriors’ record and absence of Curry.
Kept being told that they have the biggest die hard fans in the league. Too bad the real die heads are priced out.
Actually they have die hard fans of all sizes, not just big ones
Too bad they’ll be disappointed with next season as well.
LOL Keep dreaming dionis. Warriors will be back to mopping the floor with the rockets again next year. Must be upsetting to you that ticket prices are still outragous, games are still sold out, and it took a communist engineered cold virus to make a few empty seats in San Francisco. LOL @ you
You do know they will be better than rockets?
They really won’t be.
Steph+Green+Klay+whatever they get for 2020 and 2021 top 5 picks>>>>>>>Harden+Russ
Green is a joke! Curry n Klay are old n becoming injury prone 2020 draft absolutely sucks n if they are any good at all they won’t have a top 5 pick in 2021. It’s gonna be so fun watching y’all fall off that pedestal
This^
Did you watch the post season last year? The “joke” was the reason they got as far as they did. You don’t like green? Get over it
I lived in Northern Ca. for 15 years. You couldn’t find a Warriors fan anywhere. Those fans only show up when their teams are good. Same thing with the Kings fans. Northern Cali fans are simply fair weather.
I mean to be fair I am a Kings fan and have little interest in the team most of the time. Maybe it’s fair weather but I only have so much patience for a pathetic team.
We have always been here, but nobody wanted to cruise around in a Troy Murphy jersey.
Oh come on, you know you bought an Ike Diogu jersey back in the day.
Chief two hands, you are absolutely wrong on that. Bay area has the greatest warriors fans the last 30 years. Even when we sucked in the 90s the fan base was very very strong. Win or lose we’ve got great fans.
What you might be talking about is The Fringe fans who are bandwagon types who jumped on when the warriors were winning and then jumped off when this season was in the toilet. Just think of the Raiders and you’ll see what I’m talking about with Bay Area sports fans. We are there and we are strong.
Not true chief. I have lived in the bay area for over 40 years. GSW shirts has always been around. Even when they were real bad they had sell outs. What i rarely see is kings shirts even when I am up in Sac town. I know a lot of people that go up to sac to watch GS because it easier to find tickets.
People standing at the door with thermometers Hello
There is little limit on what gathering of people can in theory be banned without testing information… vaccine a ways away
NBA season is probably going to be cancelled/suspended before the end of March. that is what I’m hearing
Ugh fing politics ruins something else
The concession stands at Pacers games sell a souvenir cup that offers free refills of soft drinks. At the beginning of the season, I buy one cup. I then smuggle the same cup in every game under my coat.
Last night, I found out they are no longer offering free refills due to coronavirus concerns.
We are truly living in dark days.
Uh prolly they only consider cancelling or moving games when they realize the number of people coming is no longer as profitable for the organization. Or it just makes the guise of public safety that much easier in a press release
Nba games are not moving, surviving on the pull of the day – the bulk of the money per home game has already been made before the games are played – all the concessions and stuff are a bonus.
The Nba season and the playoffs are not going to be cancelled – if anything they’ll move on with empty arenas.
You guys think one nba game is more serious in the big picture than some European soccer matches being played without fans?
The point is the season will be played out somehow, but too much big business involved to just have the season cut short.
Why don’t they just not sell lower arena seats? Fill the upper decks with fans willing to risk it. The players would be less at risk with not having fans so close, but fans could still get the experience. And we wouldn’t have to watch basketball being played in an abandoned warehouse.
You think this is because of the threat to players? The threat is that the virus spreads through the general population when there are large crowds gathered. Each one of those people in the stands will interact with a lot of other people when they leave. This thing is no joke.
Okay, but do expect all of those people to just seal themselves into a Tupperware container until the virus leaves? If they don’t go to the game, they will mostly converge at sports bars or elsewhere to watch the game. So it’s not really helping the problem, it is just moving it to another location away from the players. It’s akin to instead of raking and throwing away your leaves, you just blow them into the neighbor’s yard. The problem is still there, just further away from you. This virus is not going to stop people from gathering in crowds. That’s what people do.
The average attendance to NBA games ranges from 15,000 to 20,000 people. How many sports bars with such capacity do you know?
That literally doesn’t matter. Why mention it other than attempting to patch up a very flawed conclusion??? Hmm.
San Francisco should focus on the thousands of homeless on their streets turning the once great city into a disgusting swine hole. Thats a much more pressing public health issue than coronavirus
We should set up trailer parks in states in the middle of the country where there is plenty of room and move them there. Are you donating money to help that happen? Just imagine all of those interesting people interacting with people in Kansas or Montana or some other deep red state.