County slams fan ban for 49ers
Health officials reject new guidelines that allow some attendance
Santa Clara Count y health officials are on the hot seat after promptly rejecting new state rules allowing some fans to attend pro football, soccer and other outdoor sporting events.
The county is home to some of the only California outdoor stadiums that could potentially welcome back sports fans under the state’s new guidance — the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium, and Earthquakes Stadium, home of San Jose’s Major League Soccer team.
But Santa Clara County, which led the Bay Area in locking down activities back in March, also has been among the slowest to reopen despite moderate outbreaks that are among the lowest of the state’s urban counties. And the continued fan ban didn’t sit well with some of the county’s elected leaders.
“For seven months, we have asked for extraordinary sacrifice from our local residents and businesses,” Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, whose district includes Levi’s, said Wednesday. “I believe we owe them in exchange — at a minimum — transparency in the decision-making processes and a commitment to collaboration in working
through how we can contain the virus, while recognizing the ancillary harms that result from prolonged shutdowns.”
Supervisors at Tuesday’s board meeting criticized what Ellenberg called a “rush” decision to keep fans out of outdoor stadiums, which came an hour and a half after the state revised its stadium guidance, and called the county executive’s announcement to that effect “unconscionable and inappropriate.”
She and Supervisor Mike Wasserman noted 25 NFL teams in other states are playing in front of fans. And Wasserman questioned whether that is any more dangerous than allowed activities like outdoor dining.
“When I see a couple of couples sitting at a table or three couples sitting at a table, any one them could be asymptomatic,” Wasserman said. “They’re sitting across each other for at least an hour, they don’t have a mask on, so the risk of infection right there is as high as it can possibly get. But we allow that.”
County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody told county board members Tuesday the state’s announcement on fans in stadiums — which applies only to counties with no more than moderate coronavirus outbreaks — came as a “surprise.” But she defended the decision not to go along.
“It’s in my judgment not safe for our community, especially now when we still have so many businesses and so many activities that have not been able to resume,” Cody told the board. “We’re staring down what could be a really rugged winter.”
With the state’s allowance for 20% capacity crowds in outdoor stadiums, some 13,000 fans would be allowed to gather at Levi’s.
“Even if you sort of conservatively run those numbers, you are going to have a couple hundred infected people coming into a stadium together,” Cody told the board. “It’s simply not safe to gather fans together.”
49ers president Al Guido said in a Wednesday interview on KNBR that the team hopes to be able to work with the county supervisors and administration to find ways to safely host fans at upcoming games.
“We’ve had a lot of dialogue since their announcement yesterday,” Guido told KNBR, adding that they would perform temperature checks on all fans, require a signed health questionnaire and evaluate a staggered entry to the stadium to avoid having fans congregate while waiting in line. “We look forward to continuing to work with them.”
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said not having fans in the stands this year like so many other NFL teams has put the Niners at a disadvantage.
“It’s been tough,” Shanahan said. “I hope we can eventually figure out something. Hopefully they’ll keep talking and feel safe like they do other places.”
But that didn’t seem likely Wednesday.
“All the ‘ talk’ in the world will not change the biology of the virus,” County Executive Jeff Smith, Cody’s boss, who also holds a medical degree, said Wednesday. “The virus spreads rapidly in large crowds, and the virus is deadly. There’s no way that ‘ talk’ will change those facts.”
Not all the five Santa Clara County supervisors who appoint the county executive seemed troubled with the county keeping fans out of the stands.
Board President Cindy Chavez had nothing to say on the matter Wednesday or during Tuesday’s meeting. A spokeswoman Wednesday said Supervisor Joe Simitian “has nothing to share” and deferred to the county health officer. Supervisor Dave Cortese, whose district includes Earthquakes Stadium, was not part of the discussion at Tuesday’s board meeting and was unavailable Wednesday.
Sporting events were an early casualty of the coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 41 million worldwide, including 8.3 million Americans, and killed 1.1 million, including more than 221,000 in the U.S.
As the pandemic erupted, health officials in the spring shut down everything from pro basketball and hockey to high school and college athletics. Baseball teams in Japan and Korea played in empty stadiums, a move copied in the U. S. when Major League Baseball launched a shortened season in July.
Since then, health officials in other states have begun to allow stadiums to have a reduced number of fans, including at baseball’s World Series, being played at a retractable-roof stadium in Arlington, Texas. So far, there have been few fan cases reported. Last month, Kansas City health officials said 10 fans who attended a Chiefs football game were told to quarantine after one fan tested positive.
California’s revised guidance would allow outdoor pro sports stadiums in its orange tier counties such as Santa Clara to have fans from up to 120 miles away at up to 20% capacity, and allows up to 25% capacity in yellow tier counties with minimal outbreaks.
The state is still forbidding fans at all indoor stadiums. Cody acknowledged outdoor venues are lower risk than poorly ventilated indoor arenas and that face masks and keeping people spaced apart also help. But she said those measures would be undercut by things fans do at games — shouting, cheering and removing face masks to eat and drink.
But Wasserman noted that local families already travel to youth sports games in neighboring counties, where they are masked and socially distanced.
“I hope that we can get to a point relatively soon,” Wasserman said, “where we can allow 20% just for starters attendance at these outdoor games.”