At Saturday's MLS match between Atlanta United and FC Cincinnati, the announced attendance was just over 69,000 although judging from the number of empty seats, that doesn't seem accurate. There were quite a few more empty seats than I typically see in estimating the difference between 'tickets sold' and 'reported attendance' info. The fan pages show no interest in not attending future matches.
The only person I saw with a mask was on the train to the stadium.
There was an article in today's Atlanta Business Chronicle about the NCAA Final Four, scheduled for the first weekend in April at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. In part, it said:
Quote:
The Final Four is less than four weeks away and organizers say plans remain on track to execute the NCAA’s crown jewel event despite a growing number of coronavirus cases nationwide.
“It’ll ultimately be the [NCAA’s] decision as to any type of modifications or changes, if any, to the tournament,” Carl Adkins, executive director of the Atlanta Basketball Host Committee said. “We’re planning as if nothing has changed — and quite frankly nothing has changed at this point. We’re still planning for 80,000 people to be in the stadium on that final Saturday.”
The National College Players Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, recently said that it wants the NCAA to consider hosting games at its tournament sites without fans for public safety reasons. The NCAA COVID-19 advisory panel said last Friday though that it plans to move forward as scheduled and that it did not recommend cancelling athletic events across the country, including its own lucrative tournament. Dan Gavitt, the NCAA’s senior vice president of men’s basketball, echoed this sentiment when speaking on a CBS Sports telecast Sunday.
“At this time, we are definitively planning on running the tournament at all 14 sites with fans, from the First Four in Daytona through the Final Four in Atlanta,” he said.
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