1:17pm: The Warriors have confirmed that Thursday’s game against the Nets will be played without fans, announcing in a press release that fans with tickets will receive refunds. The club has also cancelled, postponed, or relocated all other Chase Center events through March 21, including a Post Malone concert and a Santa Cruz Warriors game.
12:49pm: In the wake of news that the City of San Francisco has banned public gatherings of more than 1,000 people, the Warriors will be directed to close Thursday’s home game vs. the Nets to fans, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link).
The NBA recently instructed its teams to prepare for the possibility of playing home games with only essential personnel in the building, and had scheduled a Wednesday afternoon conference call with team owners and governors to discuss its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
A pair of Warriors games at Chase Center – Thursday vs. Brooklyn and March 25 vs. Atlanta – will be affected by the City of San Francisco’s decision to ban gatherings of 1,000+ people for the next two weeks. It remains to be seen how Golden State’s home games will be impacted beyond that date, or whether the league will elect to have games played behind closed doors in other NBA cities.
However, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link) hears from a source that the Warriors are planning to play their home games without fans for the “foreseeable” future, barring a change in the city’s directive. The team is still meeting to discuss the situation and could receive further direction from the NBA following today’s conference call, Woj adds (via Twitter).
Local governments in Ohio and D.C. have also recommended that indoor mass gatherings be postponed or cancelled — however, for the time being, that’s just a recommendation, not a ban. The Cavaliers and Wizards are unlikely to take any drastic measures without official word coming down from the NBA.
If anyone got sick, they could just walk across the street to one of the best hospitals in the country.
Not true. you can’t walk into a private hospital you must find a county hospital. Private hospital will want to be paid first.
Ok. I oversimplified that. But, the hospital across the street is UCSF. A public hospital.
I think the bigger issue is that some people would be sick and never know it, thereby spreading it to others unknowingly.
Which is why it’s also different from the flu.
True.
Going to be awkward watching these games without any fans in attendance. Don’t know if I could handle it haha.
Well, it was probably inevitable anyway since in a few weeks/months time we’ll probably clear 100k+ cases. Getting worked up about stuff like this is pointless since it’s happening anywhere and is going to continue happening.
Guess I can finally work on that Netflix backlog now.
TNT is carrying the European Soccer Championships. A few of those games have had no one in attendance. It is weird not hearing any cheering.
Just wait to they start inserting prerecorded cheers, boos and chants….for the TV watching atmosphere experience…
Please, god no. That would be awful.
I take it all back. Reopen it to the public!!
Sounds like those awful network sitcoms.
I can’t stand watching shows with laugh tracks.
This is ridiculous.
It’s beyond ridiculous, in Australia, we can not even buy toilet paper at the moment…thanks to all the pansies with the mentality of a sheep…
It’s always so easy for those who make decisions for us to prohibit our activities. Are they canceling their fundraisers? Their cocktail parties? Their orgies? Their country club get togethers? No, just the common people’s entertainment. It’s sick that they think they’re doing us a favor by controlling what we can and can not do. Never let a crisis go to waste. Can’t wait for the new gear fad to come in. This one is annoying.
I don’t know. Maybe you should wait and see before continuing on with your anti-government rant?
Bernie and Biden cancelled their rallies. That’s not nothing.
And since when do cocktail parties or country club get-togethers involved 1k+ people?
What about the orgies, man??
The orgies are acceptable. And thankfully, we can partake in those too!
I’ll send ya an invite if you want. Just be warned: things can get a little crazy in thousand-plus orgies. They’re not for the faint of heart.
The games are still going to be on TV. Most “common people” as you call them (myself included) watch the NBA on TV. It’s too expensive to go to games these days anyway. People with cocktail parties and orgies are probably also the people who have courtside seats and are most affected by this. I just don’t follow your argument.
Bad move Silver…a very bad move…
Why? You either do this or cancel the games. Only repercussion is the owners make nada and still have to pay the players.
It went from bad to a lot worse……