At home in Colorado
Up to 1,000 United fans can travel to see team play in Colorado Springs
New Mexico United may not have a field to call home this season, but Tuesday, they announced their home away from home.
The state’s second-year professional soccer team — the only one in the 35-team league not allowed to play any matches this season in its home state — has struck a deal to move its Sept. 19 match from Albuquerque to Colorado Springs.
More important for United, the team that easily led the USL Championship league in average home attendance in its debut season in 2019, it will be a “home” match. The Switchbacks are making available 1,000 tickets for only United fans willing to make the drive north of the state line to see it.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring the United family together again in a safe and responsible way,” NMU President and majority owner Peter Trevisani said in a statement, that also listed numerous safety requirements for ticket buyers including signing a COVID safety pledge, contact tracing, social distancing in the stadium and masks and hand sanitizers will be
distributed.
The move wouldn’t have been possible just a week ago, prior to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham relaxing an order that required a 14-day quarantine of anyone traveling from out of state. And, at least in terms of public statements, it for the first time in the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have United and the governor’s office not singing the same tune.
“The state has been and remains entirely clear that traveling for anything other than absolutely essential business during the ongoing pandemic is an extraordinary risk and is strongly discouraged. That would include traveling across state lines to attend a sporting event,” Lujan Grisham Press Secretary Nora Meyers Sackett told the Journal in an email.
“Mass gatherings continue to pose great risk to the health and safety of both individuals and the wider community, which is why they continue to be prohibited in New Mexico, and we strongly discourage any New Mexicans from attending any mass gathering, regardless of location.”
But make no mistake, United’s move was in the works for some time and was not a surprise to Lujan Grisham.
“The Governor’s Office is aware of this event, and New Mexico United have taken several steps to ensure the safety of all attendees, and compliance with the Governor’s Public Health Order,” Trevisani told the Journal. “… We appreciate Governor Lujan-Grisham’s consistent effort to keep New Mexicans safe, and we join in her call for safe, socially distanced activity.”
United received a “shout out” from Lujan Grisham during one of her weekly COVID-19 update news conferences for its following of safety guidelines and asking its fans to do the same. She even gave her blessing to the team bypassing the travel quarantine mandate to practice when traveling back from out of state matches.
Trevisani, who is on the governor’s Economic Recovery Council advising on reopening the state from pandemic restrictions, has been careful throughout the past five months to adhere to Lujan Grisham’s state orders, and the team has asked its fans and supporters to do the same. He and the team remain hopeful that their final three matches scheduled for Albuquerque — Sept. 23, 26 and 30 — can, in fact, be played locally if the governor relaxes mass gathering restrictions by then.
United opened ticket sales Tuesday to season ticket holders who, instead of asking for a refund, donated it to the team’s Somos Unidos Foundation. More than 100 sold in the first hour, a team spokesman said.
General public tickets for New Mexicans start Thursday at SwitchbacksFC.com.