Vaccines mandated for Redblacks fans
Fans to be vaccinated or show negative results for Sept. 22 Redblacks match
Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group announced Monday as of mid-September — kicking in for the Ottawa Redblacks'
Sept. 22 home date against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — they will require anyone in attendance, with the exception of those under the age of 12, to show proof of full vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test.
The key word: Mandatory.
The hope: More people will get vaccinated.
The policy is similar to what Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, Argos and Toronto FC, announced last week. The Toronto Blue Jays also announced fans will need to meet the same requirements to attend the final 12 home games of the Major League Baseball season, starting Sept. 13.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Forge FC soccer team will make fans meet the requirements starting with the Ticats' home game Sept. 6. The Ontario Hockey League previously announced only fully vaccinated fans 12 and over will be allowed in. The policy does not extend to the league's three U.S. teams.
“I think it's the right thing to do,” said Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group president and CEO Mark Goudie. “We have to get a hold of this. I wish everybody would just go get vaccinated and we could be done with this. You have five weeks to get two doses of vaccine into you and you don't have to worry about it going forward.
“One thing OSEG has been good at is being a leader in the community since we opened Lansdowne and brought the Redblacks back in 2014. Things like this, we need to be in the forefront of the community. We've supported vaccinations and health measures our province has seen as important from the start. As we've stalled out on vaccinations, this is a way to shine the spotlight on the need for Ottawa to continue on what was a really good vaccination trajectory that needs to kick into high gear for another 10 per cent or so.”
The Redblacks play their first home game of the season Saturday against the B.C. Lions, with about 15,000 fans expected. At that first game, there will be a pop-up vaccination clinic. With high vaccination rates into late July, it looked like the Redblacks and other sports teams might be able to get crowds much closer to capacity, but the numbers stagnated.
“I think we all believed we would be emerging from Step 3 in early August,” said Goudie. “Things were going so well. in terms of single and double vaccination rates in Ottawa. Three weeks ago, it kind of fell off a cliff and the vaccination rates have stalled out.
“In stadium management, the safety of your patrons trumps everything. Our job is to provide the safest experience we can at TD Place. And I think moving to an admission policy over the next couple of weeks that ensures only fully vaccinated fans or those with a negative COVID test is a part of that.”
So why not sooner? Why not require proof of vaccination or a negative test starting with this weekend's game? The logistics of it are difficult. Without a digital vaccine passport from the province, the actual checking is time-consuming and could cause massive delays on game days. The Redblacks and sports organizations across the province are hoping the government comes through with a better system in the coming days.
“For weeks, what we have been asking the province for is a way to show proof of vaccination digitally,” said Goudie. “Right now, we don't have that. Whatever we do is going to be a very manual process. Logistically, without the help of the province providing us with the tool we asked for, it's very difficult, it's a manual process.”
OSEG has put a recent emphasis on making sure it's safe to be around its employees.
“We started a couple of weeks ago with our first outdoor event — Atletico's home opener — that all employees are vaccinated or tested,” said Goudie. “We've been offering testing for their shift. We've surveyed our employees and we have very high vaccination rates, which is great, it makes it easier.”
As for the vaccinations or a negative test being the only way into the stadium, there will be those who huff and puff it infringes on their rights or come up with some other rant from the playbook of anti-anything.
“It's turned into a fairly divisive issue,” said Goudie. “There are people who don't want to be around unvaccinated people and there are people who, for whatever reason, don't want to get vaccinated. We've tried to stay out of the politics of that. We're trying to create the safest environment possible. We support vaccination. We know our community and country has suffered. We support any responsible science-based measures that get us doing what we love and being able to enjoy each other's company at sporting events and concerts.”
There will, of course, be challenges — in both a stadium and arena environment.
“Obviously the risks and challenge associated with a 25,000-person open-air stadium and 10,000seat indoor arena are different,” said Goudie. “For Saturday's Redblacks game, we are still only using 60 per cent of the capacity, we have four sections where fans can choose to sit socially distanced. And masks are mandatory at TD place if you are not at your seat eating or drinking. We also have a bunch of other health measures, such as paperless ticketing, cashless transactions and stringent sanitization programs.”