After Dubs make leap, empty arenas may be inevitable due to COVID-19

Games in empty arenas may be inevitable for the Boston Celtics and NBA – but the league may try other measures first.

The Boston Celtics and the NBA have been adjusting to the new reality that is the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak as has the rest of the world, and even bigger adjustments may be on the horizon.

Teams — Boston included — are ramping up efforts to prevent the potential spread of the malady to players, but with the situation continuing to worsen across the United States and wider world, more aggressive measures may not be far behind.

Starting with admonishments to avoid shaking hands with fans and signing autographs, teams emphasized proper hygiene and minimizing opportunities for transmission.

Removing access to the media from locker rooms and other team spaces was the next step — deeply unpopular with reporters, but also widely acknowledged as necessary.

Soon the NBA may even consider moving scheduled games to venues in parts of the country with fewer instances of COVID-19 transference, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The league has even considered suspending games or holding them in empty arenas as has already been done with soccer and other sports in Europe and Asia, with the Golden state Warriors being the first to adopt such a policy in game against the Brooklyn Nets, reports the New York Times’ Marc Stein.

As for the latter option, longtime Celtics play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman thinks it’s only a matter of time.

Speaking on a recent episode of popular local sports radio talk show Toucher and Rich, Gorman said, “I think we’re going to be playing games in empty arenas pretty soon. Sooner than people think.”

Each team would lose about $3 million in gate revenue per game in such a situation, which would also see media for every game remain at home, with teams simply broadcasting opposing franchise’s media team productions in place of their road crews to minimize travel.

Another option might be to have crews simply do the play-by-play remotely.

For Gorman, the impact has really begun to hit home, even changing how he interacts with people at the arena; “My concern level is high,” he explained.

“At the Celtic game the other night, a lot of people come walking by the table and they want to say nice things, which I’ve very flattered by how long they’ve listened, and they stick out their hands to shake hands. I just don’t want to shake hands with anybody anymore.”

“It’s nothing personal, but I’m just trying to cut down the odds of being the one who gets this thing,” he added. Given the disease seems to be most deadly to older people, at age 72 it makes sense for the Celtics fixture to be taking an extra-cautious approach.

The NBA and other pro sports leagues are already getting blowback about continuing to hold live events in the face of the pandemic’s spread, such as California governor Gavin Newsom’s recent comments on the topic.

“I found it quite curious,” said Newsom via Yahoo Sports’ Harry Bushnell, “that the four major organizations – NHL, soccer, Major League Baseball and the NBA – put out guidelines to protect their athletes but not their fans.”

Boston forward Gordon Hayward related (via the AP’s Chris Goff) that apart from the new space between players and reporters during scheduled media access, not much has changed since the initial warnings and increased care with hygiene were put in place days ago.

He’s growing more concerned as time passes, however, reading many of the same news stories we are that see schools, colleges, and other large gatherings being canceled or postponed.

“It certainly is concerning. I read an article that said Avon schools are closed for two weeks, right next to where I grew up. It’s pretty crazy that they’re doing all this, but it’s certainly warranted to try to keep people safe.”

The sentiment was largely echoed by team head coach Brad Stevens, who said, “Nobody wants to play without fans,” via the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett. 

“That would be really too bad, but totally understand if those decisions are made. They’re made by people that are much more qualified than us to make them.”

Stevens would go on to emphasize the importance of the presence and participation of the fans while taking care to note that even as the fans make the NBA itself possible, some things — like public health — are justifiably a much higher priority.

And if it comes to many parts of the country finding itself under partial quarantine, the mere existence of games being able to continue may prove a welcome respite from being forced to spend much of one’s time between four walls.

Normally-staid Stevens couldn’t help but crack a joke in the midst of the heavy topic, however, joking that his, “hope would be that whatever hot mic they have isn’t right next to me if we have no fans in the building [and] they pick up everything I’m saying.”

Jokes aside, should a player end up with the virus, it could create significant issues for a team and the league moving forward. “The first time an NBA player comes down with this, that’s really going to mess things up,” suggested Gorman.

“If somebody comes down with it who’s directly associated with the team or a player, then they’re going to have to make some very interesting decisions in terms of who they quarantine,” he continued.

The Celtics, NBA and all of us have change coming to our lives as a result of this pandemic, most of them unwelcome.

But they should be made with great caution, and we should use the best science from the most-informed experts like the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control to guide our actions at the individual and collective level.

Lives very well may depend on it.

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