The Houston Rockets are not planning to host fans for their two home preseason games at Toyota Center on Dec. 15 and Dec. 17, according to a new story from Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
But when the NBA’s 2020-21 regular season begins later in the month, the team is hoping for that policy to change — at least to some extent.
Those preseason contests will represent the first NBA games at Toyota Center since March 10 — a day before the 2019-20 season was halted for months due to COVID-19. The season finally resumed in late July, but at the NBA’s neutral “bubble” complex in Central Florida.
Here’s what Tad Brown, longtime CEO of both the Rockets and Toyota Center, told Feigen regarding the organization’s challenge of potentially hosting fans amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
We look forward to getting going, but it’s going to be with the highest safety protocols in place. It’s changing by the day and I think it’s going to be a fluid situation throughout the year. We are planning of having fans at games. So much of this is going to be based on the information we have as we go forward. …
It’s going to be a challenge but one we’re looking forward to. It’s very important that we continue to build proper infrastructure, especially to make sure that we’re following all safety protocols as directed nationally, as directed from the league, as directed from our local health professionals and city leaders and county leaders.
New #Rockets at #TXSN – Rockets plan to have some fans at games for 2020-21 season https://t.co/IwMsOAM4Dj
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) November 29, 2020
Brown said it remains premature to outline the amount of fans that might be allowed to attend regular-season games or detail the safety protocols in place, since those can potentially change in the coming weeks.
For comparison, the NFL’s Houston Texans have hosted fans at 20% of usual capacity for most of the 2020 football season. That arrangement was approved by officials with both the City of Houston and Harris County. Should a similar rate of “social distancing” be in place at Toyota Center, that would make for a crowd of under 4,000 fans per game.
It’s possible, of course, that the initial capacity limits could increase as the season moves along, thanks to improved medical data or the potential availability of COVID-19 vaccines or superior treatments.
The “first half” of the NBA’s regular-season schedule is expected to be released next week, around the same time as Dec. 1 launch of training camps. The regular season officially kicks off on Tuesday, Dec. 22.
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