Why sports stadiums are the COVID assets you didn’t know about
Sports fans have had one question in their minds for many months at this point: When will we be able to go see a game again?
Disney World in Orlando is where the National Basketball Association (NBA) had located their bubble in which many teams played their games this past season. 1977 NBA champions, the Portland Trail Blazers hold players such as Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, two of the more senior players of the team along with newer-to-the-team talents like Carmelo Anthony.
Photo by Maran Sheils
Adrian Wojnarowski, popular columnist, sports reporter, and NBA insider for ESPN tweeted on Oct. 23 that “...NBA [is] discussing changes for 2020-21 season, including Christmas start [and] fewer than 82 games.” These games would be played at teams’ home and away stadiums with live television feeds to ESPN and other local networks.
Now, more than a month later, this information is still accurate with teams beginning to allow a small percentage of fans to occupy the stadiums beginning on Dec. 22.
Starting around 20% occupancy should lower the risk factor and keep the organization of this endeavor more manageable. Each team will have their own individual plan and capacity measures, but many have not yet released their plans for reopening.
There is more to a stadium’s reopening that fans may not even be aware of. The Director of Innovation and Impact for the Portland Trail Blazers and Catlin Gabel School alum Christa Stout sheds light on the logistics and planning that is going on behind the scenes.
“It's honestly everything from social distancing, to turn-by-turn navigation on our app so people know the fastest most efficient way to get to their seat along with a mask-wearing reinforcement,” explained Stout. “There are like a million more factors that we must take into account when adding fans into the equation.”
During much of the past nine months, stadiums have sat with closed doors to fans or events. They did not sit empty, however.
The campus of the Trail Blazers consists of two arenas: the Rose Quarter, where some concerts and ice hockey games are played, and the iconic Moda Center, previously known as the Rose Garden, where the Portland Trail Blazers play their home games and where other concerts occur. These two facilities, despite the global pandemic and lack of games, remain in use, but not for normal events.
These large sites, equipped with kitchens and large open covered spaces, are perfect for use by organizations like Bloodworks Northwest, an independent nonprofit organization which supplies around 95% of the blood that is used in hospitals in the Pacific Northwest.
They have used these facilities for blood donation in the past months which has accumulated approximately 340 units of blood. According to Bloodwords, these donations could save up to 920 lives. The Rose Quarter’s kitchen has aided several organizations which has a large positive impact on the surrounding community.
In Atlanta, the government and the sports complex came to an agreement on how to manage voter registration and services without huge lines and in a safe, efficient manner. The Blazers did offer to provide voter services and advocacy via the Moda Center and Rose Quarter, however, the government declined. Instead, an on-campus drive-through was organized where voting kits were handed out in an attempt to advocate for voter participation.
With the Pfizer vaccine getting a green light from the FDA, many people are becoming hopeful about the future of this virus. It will still be many months, however, until stadiums reach full capacity again.