Tag: Gavin Newsom

While the Celtics and Warriors battle …

While the Celtics and Warriors battle on the court in a tightly contested NBA Finals, the governors of California and Massachusetts have joined in on the action. In a tweet Wednesday, about a half hour before the tipoff of game three, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker promised California Gov. Gavin Newsom that the Celtics would claim the Larry O’Brien Trophy this year.

State of California offers guidelines to USC for football activity

Very important news on a Friday afternoon.

How are we going to get college football training camp started? How are we going to have an on-ramp to college football in the state of California, which contains four of the Pac-12’s teams (one-third of the league membership)?

Answers to these burning questions were provided — not complete answers, but certainly substantial improvements — by the State of California on Friday afternoon. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News obtained COVID-19-related health and safety guidelines provided by the state which affect USC and UCLA in Los Angeles County, plus Stanford in Santa Clara County and California in the City of Berkeley.

These guidelines are part of a 34-page health and safety plan for secondary and higher education in the state. The 34-page document contains a more specific 10-page plan for collegiate athletics, starting on page 24.

You can view the document here.

A short excerpt of the state guidelines obtained by Wilner:

“All decisions about following this guidance should be made in collaboration with local public health officials and other authorities.

“Implementation of this guidance should be tailored for each setting, including adequate consideration of programs operating at each institution and the needs of student-athletes and workers.

“Administrators should engage relevant stakeholders— including student-athletes, their families, staff and labor partners in the school community—to formulate and implement plans.”

One obvious point to make about these guidelines is that while the county and city officials will need to approve them in order for USC, UCLA, Stanford, and Cal to begin training camp in mid-August and then play games starting in late September, there might not have to be 100-percent uniformity among the four schools or with the state guidelines. Some degree of local discretion might enter the picture; how much is the big question, something you are surely wondering about.

That tension between state government and county or city government — an obvious structural complication in California and every other American state or territory in this pandemic — will need to be resolved in a productive way over the next several weeks.

Stay tuned for more news and analysis as events warrant.

NFL teams could start return to facilities by next week with minicamps in June

A lot has to happen before it’s a reality, but there are encouraging signs for a 2020 NFL season.

According to a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Charles Robinson, in which the reporter spoke with several NFL sources, the NFL could be readying to have their head coaches return to facilities as early as next week — and that this action could lead the way to possible minicamps in June.

One source told Robinson that if California Governor Gavin Newsom opens the door to full team operations, that could lead the way for the NFL to start planning minicamps.

“If California is open for [team] operations soon, minicamps can still happen in June — probably late June, I’d think — but maybe even mid-June,” the source said.

Another source told Robinson that June 15 and June 27th have been identified as potential minicamp dates. Recently, Newsom did float the idea of pro sports returning to California sooner than later.

“A number of other sectors of our economy will open up again if we hold these [positive] trend lines in the next number of weeks,” Newsom concluded on May 18. Clearly, any spike that reverses those trend lines would affect any additional player participation.

On the same day, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that his state will help teams that want to start opening.

On Tuesday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced that all professional sports teams in his state are allowed to plan for and begin training camp activities as long as they’re following necessary health protocols.

“We have been in constant discussions with teams about necessary protocols to protect the health and safety of players, coaches, and personnel,” Murphy said in a Twitter statement.

As minicamps are generally private entities, observed by team representatives, credentialed reporters, and selected team guests and VIPs, it would be easy enough to practice social distancing for those in attendance. How even non-contact practices would fall under those guidelines is entirely another matter, and the NFLPA would obviously have to sign off on any player participation, but this is an encouraging step for those who have worried about the viability of a 2020 NFL season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Training camps are generally attended by fans, but with the NFL looking at the possibility of starting the season with games in stadiums with no fans, one would imagine a similar scenario when padded, contact-filled practices begin.

Again, a lot has to happen here. Right now, this is all in the realm of the hypothetical. Testing numbers and overall curves have to continue to go in the right directions in the right places for prescribed periods of time.

Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross recently said on CNBC that he anticipates a 2020 NFL season, and if all these possibilities happen to come true, that seems a likely scenario — again, under all the right protocols.

“I think there definitely will be a football season this year,” Ross said on Tuesday. “Real question is, will there be fans in the stadium? Right now — today — we’re planning to have fans in the stadium. We all miss our sports. The NFL, I think, will be ready to go. I know we’re all looking forward to it. I know I am.”

How 49ers benefit from California governor Gavin Newsom’s latest COVID-19 update

COVID-19 is keeping the 49ers behind the NFL’s timeline for return, but California governor Gavin Newsom had an encouraging update.

It looked like the 49ers might fall behind most of the NFL while California continued its conservative approach to re-opening after more than two months of shelter in place orders. The league will allow teams to re-open facilities on a limited basis Tuesday. The 49ers weren’t due to be part of that re-opening due to local guidelines in Santa Clara County, but governor Gavin Newsom gave the 49ers some hope that they might soon begin re-opening their building.

Newsom during his Monday briefing said the state could be ready for live sports, without fans, by early June as long as COVID-19 cases continue trending the way they’re going.

“Sporting events, pro sports in that first week or so of June without spectators, and modifications and very prescriptive conditions also could begin to move forward,” Newsom said. “And a number of other sectors of our economy will open up – again, if we hold these trend lines in the next number of weeks.”

Newsom on Monday tweeted that COVID-19-related hospitalizations were down 7.5 percent, and ICU patients were down 8.7 percent over the previous two weeks.

Assuming those numbers continue their decline, Santa Clara County should begin to ease the shelter-in-place restrictions keeping the 49ers out of their facility.

The NFL guidelines for returning are very stringent, and don’t allow players and coaches to be among the 50 percent of personnel in the building. Not returning in this first phase wouldn’t have been too harmful for the 49ers, but extended shelter-in-place orders that began trickling into training camp or the preseason could’ve wound up forcing the club to search for other places to continue in-person work.

Newsom’s latest timeline for the resumption of sporting events appears to mean San Francisco will be able to keep up with the NFL’s plan to resume more regular activities. A forecast that projects live sports in early June seems to also bode well for NFL games either in August for the preseason, or September for the regular season, although that could change if California sees a reversal in its COVID-19 trends.

California Gov. Newsom says state’s pro sports could return in June

The Governor of California Gavin Newsom said in a statement on Monday that he could see sports returning to the state in June.

While the NBA tries to use up all of the time they possibly can to delay a decision on how, if or when they will resume the 2019-20 season, more state governments are indicating that pro sports could return, albeit with certain stipulations. On Monday, the state with the most NBA teams made an interesting move.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement on Monday that he could see professional sports returning by June, as reported by the Southern California News Group. The NBA has four teams in California, with both the Lakers and the Clippers in L.A., as well as the Warriors in San Francisco and the Kings in Sacramento. Newsom also said that games would definitely begin without fans if they were to begin.

The Lakers and most of the NBA have opened their practice facilities for socially distanced workouts. While it’s unclear what impact the Governor’s statement today will have on the NBA, it does show that more states believe pro sports could be played this year. Whether that will influence the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver remains to be seen.

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California governor says pro sports could return in state by June

Sports in California could be making a return next month.

Sports fans, great news came on Monday afternoon.

California governor Gavin Newsom said professional sports could return in the entire state by the first week of June, but without fans.

While it’s excellent to hear, it came as a bit of surprise, given the fact that California has been one of the strictest states in regards to the coronavirus pandemic cautionary actions.

For teams that play in California like the Chargers, this is promising progress. The Bolts are expected to play nine games at SoFi Stadium next season.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent out a memo to teams stating that clubs may reopen their facilities starting on May 19, allowing 50% of team staff, and no more than 75 people.

However, the Chargers, along with the Rams and 49ers, will not be able to open their facilities due to the state’s guidelines.

Newsom’s latest announcement is intriguing, but it doesn’t guarantee that there will be spectators allowed into the brand new stadium when it opens up in August.

Training camp, which begins towards of the end, is up in the air at Jack Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa, CA. If they can’t hold it there, there could be the possibility of them holding it in another state.

California governor could see sports returning without fans in June

Governor Gavin Newsom shared some good news on the state of professional sports in California.

With speculation about the 2020 NFL season running rampant right now, California Governor Gavin Newsom shared some good news on Monday. During a briefing, Newsom said he could see professional sports return without fans as early as the first week of June.

That’s a surprising development considering how strict the state’s current guidelines are regarding the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a positive development for the Rams, however, who will play eight games at SoFi Stadium next season and one additional game in California against the 49ers.

Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to all 32 teams last week about a soft reopening of facilities on May 19, allowing no more than 50 percent of the staff in the building at a time. The total number of people in each team’s facilities is not to exceed 75.

No coaches are allowed to reenter their team’s building yet, though, so as to keep the competitive playing field level. The Rams, for instance, will not be among the teams allowed to reopen their facility on Tuesday due to the state’s guidelines.

While Newsom’s latest announcement is certainly a good sign, it doesn’t mean SoFi Stadium will be packed in August and September when it opens for preseason and eventually regular-season games.

The Rams will lose out on a lot of revenue if the 2020 season begins without fans in the stands, and opening a $5 billion building without any crowd whatsoever will make Week 1 against the Cowboys feel far less grand.

As for training camp, which typically starts in late July, it remains to be seen if the Rams will be able to hold it at Cal Lutheran as they have in recent years.

The Sacramento Kings said Monday …

The Sacramento Kings said Monday they’ll stop charging the state of California rent for using their former arena as a COVID-19 field hospital, but will pocket the $1 million they’ve been paid so far, representatives of the team and the state told The Sacramento Bee. The new arrangement comes three weeks after The Bee revealed the Kings were charging the state $500,000 a month for a three-month rental of the Natomas facility, despite statements by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Kings chairman Vivek Ranadive in early April that implied the old arena had been lent for free.