NORTHEAST WISCONSIN- The Bay Conference and Northeastern Conference Athletic Directors have decided to limit fan attendance at sporting events for the fall sports season.
With soccer, volleyball and football games coming up this month, spectators who wish to attend will need to have a ticket.
Each athlete will be given two tickets to hand for each game.
“If you do not have one, you will not be allowed in,” said Bay and Northeastern Conference Commissioner Mark Zahn. “Some of the stadiums can accommodate more people so there may be some leeway there.”
Most schools are urging athletes to give the tickets to adults due to the fact that kids tend to congregate.
“Some schools are looking into a student spectator only game or something along that line, but we have not really talked about that in detail yet.
Zahn says spectators who do have a ticket will be expected to bring a mask and to wear it when necessary.
“Anytime spectators are on the movement or cannot social distance, we ask that they wear masks.”
He says the conference AD’s agreed that they are not going to directly police mask wearing, but remind spectators that not following guidelines may negatively impact athletes chances to continue playing.
“This is about the kids. Regardless of what they believe, it is putting our athletes health at risk,” Zahn said. If they cannot wear a mask and follow the health guidelines sports will not work.” “If we see that spectators are not cooperating, it could result in shutting the athletic activity down,” Zahn said. If there is an outbreak, we will know where it came from and we will go from there.” We are appealing to them to corporate in the best interest of the athletes.”
Zahn says the conference Athletic Directors are meeting often to make any adjustments which could include increasing the number of fans or decreasing the number of fans.
“If it goes to zero, that would be because we are not getting compliance from the spectators or it is because we have an outbreak,” Zahn said. “If we have to, we will shut the game down until we have compliance, or we just close it to all spectators.”
Zahn urges fans to understand that this is not the time or place to make a political or personal stance.
“We are asking athletes to express the importance of their families following guidelines.
Right now almost all of the Bay Conference and Northeastern Conference schools are set up for live streaming a majority of their fall season sporting events. Details on that are still being worked out.
“This is one reason we feel confident that this will work,” Zahn said.
Each school will be releasing the details of how to connect to live streaming as soon as it is set up. The streaming may require a paid subscription.
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