Let a few fans in

Over the past few months during the current pandemic, we have seen many industries negatively affected. Although there are lots of companies struggling, one of the most noticeable industries that is affected by COVID-19 is sports leagues, both collegiate and professional.

COVID-19 emerged as a serious problem in sports in early March, when the Utah Jazz Center tested positive for COVID-19, canceling the Utah Jazz game on March 11. In the following days, as more positive tests came in throughout the league, the NBA postponed the rest of the season. 

With many other leagues across the world getting postponed because of positive test results, sports leagues began discussing if they would play games, and if so, when they could start back up. 

The end of the season tournament for NCAA College Basketball, also known as “March Madness,” first came out and said they would not have any fans in attendance. Shortly after, they canceled the whole tournament.

The first COVID-19 case in the United States was on Jan. 20. Now, in November, almost a year later, our world is still not the same as it used to be. 

Everywhere you go, there is risk of picking up the disease. COVID-19 has started to affect everything in our world, even just going to the grocery store. 

Even though I am an 18 -year-old who is healthy with a good immune system, I have to be cautious with every action, because I have family members who are immunocompromised. I would feel so bad if I got COVID-19 and gave it to a family member whose body couldn’t fight the disease as well as I could.

As the NFL season is in week 10 already, every team has rules regarding how many fans they can have in attendance. 

Many states have made it so teams cannot have any in-person attendance for games. Likewise, college football has the same rules, it is up to the state to determine whether attendance is allowed for the games. 

However, with college basketball  less than two weeks away, teams are already saying that they will not allow any in-person attendance. 

For example, Duke has decided that they will not hold any fans in attendance, at least to start the season. In the next few days, we should expect to hear from many schools and their plans for attendance in the upcoming season. However, we haven’t heard anything from Xavier on whether they will let fans attend games this year.

Even though I believe that COVID-19 is a big issue and should be addressed, I think that we should let fans into sporting events. 

I think that students should be able to go to Xavier’s games this year. Whether that be all students or just limited capacity, I think that fans should be able to go to the home games and cheer for the Musketeers. 

If not all fans can go due to limitations, it should be the first ones to sign up for tickets. I think that a big part of college is going to the sporting events, and nobody wants to watch the game on TV. Students want to be in attendance at Cintas, cheering for Xavier.

Even if fans have to wear a mask inside and stay socially distanced, and not all students are allowed in, I think that is better than no fans. However, to make sure everyone is safe and nobody gets COVID-19, there should definitely be rules that fans have to follow. 

Some of these rules could include mandatory masks, and having every other seat open rather than all seats. This would allow for proper social distancing. 

Also, fans would have to stay home and not attend if they are feeling sick or experiencing any symptoms. Additionally, when students enter the arena, they would have to have their temperatures taken to make sure they don’t have a fever, which is a symptom of COVID-19. 

Another way of making sure students don’t have it is to have students get tested for COVID-19 before they can go to games and provide evidence that they tested negative. However as there would need to be access to lots of tests, this might not be a possibility.

However, I think that any fans being able to go to college sporting events or professional sporting events is worth it, because nobody wants to be watching the game from home on TV. Fans want to be at the game, in the middle of the action, taking in the experience. 

During the pandemic, sports have been impacted a lot financially, but sports lovers have also been affected because the majority of them haven’t been able to go to games since last year.