March Without The Madness: NCAA Limits Attendance At Events

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 03: The NCAA logo on the floor during a Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Tournament - First Round college basketball game between the Richmond Spiders and the George Washington Colonials at the ... WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 03: The NCAA logo on the floor during a Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Tournament - First Round college basketball game between the Richmond Spiders and the George Washington Colonials at the Smith Center on March 3, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The NCAA announced in a statement Wednesday that it will hold its March Madness tournaments without fans and restrict attendance to “essential staff and limited family.”

The NCAA said in the statement that its COVID-19 Advisory panel recognizes the virus’ “fluidity” and “its impact on hosting events in a public space.”

The student athlete nonprofit organization cited how COVID-19 is “spreading rapidly” in the U.S. when stating that it views “behavioral risk mitigation strategies” as the “best option for slowing” the disease’s spread.

“This is especially important because mildly symptomatic individuals can transmit COVID-19,” the NCAA said in the statement, before mentioning how the organization took older adults’ higher risk of contraction into account.

“Given these considerations, coupled with a more unfavorable outcome of COVID-19 in older adults – especially those with underlying chronic medical conditions – we recommend against sporting events open to the public,” the NCAA wrote in the statement.

The NCAA concluded by saying that limiting sport events to “only essential personnel and limited family attendance” protects players, employees and fans.

Read the statement in full below:

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  1. Avatar for deuce deuce says:

    Oh the irony…

  2. Yeah, nothing like the schools themselves closing and the basketball craziness still going on.

  3. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    It’s either this or cancelling the tournament outright. In either case, another blow to Trump’s economy when you think of the millions of fans that would have flown, lodged, ate, and shopped at the various venues.

    But we have to take all safety measures in these uncertain times.

  4. GOP Limits Intelligence.

  5. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    NCAA’s got to make coin…while the players take the brunt of the risk of contracting the virus.

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