Patroons forced to cancel season

COVID-19 restrictions prevent fan attendance

The Albany Patroons of The Basketball League won’t play this season, team officials said Sunday.

They aren't allowed to have fans at the Washington Avenue Armory, their homecourt, because of state restrictions on capacity during the coronavirus pandemic. Also, the Armory is being converted into a mass vaccination site for Capital Region residents.

"Just too much going on," head coach Derrick Rowland said. "COVID just killed our program and there’s nothing we could do about it, so just made a decision we’re not going to attempt to even play."

While Gov. Andrew Cuomo is allowing stadiums and arenas that hold 10,000 or more fans to open at 10 percent capacity, that doesn’t apply to the Armory, with a capacity of about 3,000 for basketball.

The Patroons went 6-3 last season in their first season under new owner Dr. Tim Maggs, who has a chiropractic and health center in Schenectady, before the remainder of the season was cancelled due to the pandemic.

"Last year was a brutal year because we came in an invested so much and (the season) was cut short which really made it very difficult economically," said Maggs, now the team's chief executive officer with a six-person board of directors. "Now, to start the program and get everything going and get the rug pulled out from under us again, I wasn't going to do that."

The TBL regular season is scheduled to start on April 9 and run through the end of June. The schedule is 24 to 28 games.

Team officials said playing this season downtown at much larger Times Union Center wasn't an option. Maggs recalled the original Patroons of the Continental Basketball

Association drawing miniscule crowds when they relocated from the Armory to the TU Center in the early 1990s.

"No, Patroons one and only home is the Armory," general manager Michael Corts added by text. "We'll be visible throughout the year within the community and back on the court in 2022!"

Corts said the TBL is still going ahead “full steam” this spring. The league has 35 franchises, many from states with different COVID-19 restrictions than New York’s. TBL commissioner Dave Magley didn't immediately return a phone message.

With no games, the Patroons are instead calling this a “goodwill season” with plans in place to give back to the community. Corts said the Patroons will be a part of area schools’ remote learning, including physical education and business class, and will visit schools as soon as that is possible.

Maggs assured the team will be back for the 2022 season.