San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Fans invisible as the threat at home opener
For now, Spurs continue to err on the side of safety as pandemic rages outside arena
The warning boomed out of the loudspeaker a few minutes before tipoff, somehow echoing from both the past and the future but not the present. It told of an “evacuation game plan” to be used by fans in case of emergency, and it reminded everyone at the AT&T Center to be vigilant.
“If you see something suspicious, tell a law enforcement official,” an old recording of a referee intoned from the video board above center court, and it was almost enough to make a person wistful for a time when danger was visible.
No fans heard this message, of course. On opening night at the arena that has produced some of the loudest bone-rattling roars in NBA history, there were a halfdozen ushers with nobody to ush, a few security guards with no crowds to secure, a stat crew, some camera operators, and two basketball squads.
Counting team staffers, a skeleton media contingent and fewer than a dozen members of players’ families, only about 100 people laid eyes in person on the Spurs coming from behind to beat the Raptors 119-114 on Saturday night.
The Coyote, presumably quarantining, was nowhere to be seen. The Baseline Bums most assuredly booed the officials, but from multiple living rooms miles
away. There was no ball kid, no kiss cam, and no timeout beach-ball contest, because as much as Gregg Popovich’s team yearns to hear fans chant “Go, Spurs, Go!” again, the franchise just can’t let them do it yet.
“We owe them a safe environment,” Popovich said before Saturday’s game, the first regularseason contest played in San Antonio since the
NBA went on a pandemicrelated hiatus last March. “We need more information. We need more time.”
How much time is yet to be determined. The only official announcement the Spurs have made is that, as of three weeks ago, they were targeting Jan. 1 as the day they would begin welcoming fans back “in a limited capacity.” But Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, the top official in the county that owns the arena, told the ExpressNews on Saturday he has
“encouraged” the Spurs to “hold off” on those plans.
“It’s still a dangerous time,” Wolff said.
That’s made for difficult circumstances for just about every business depending on in-person customers, and the Spurs are no different. Every game that gets played without fans costs them revenue, and as a team with one of the smallest television markets in the league, the loss of tickets and concessions can be extra tough.
And while Popovich made clear he was not making any pronouncements about whether fans would be in the arena when the Los Angeles Lakers visit Friday, he said the Holt family and the organization have “gone round and round” talking about how important it is to keep everyone safe.
“That’s why for right now, it’s not going to be a situation where fans are going to be in the arena,” Popovich said. “It’s the best policy for them and for everyone considering what it’s like out there in
the pandemic right now.”
So that left the Spurs with another surreal night in what is becoming a long line of them.
Outside the AT&T Center, the parking lot remained mostly empty, with a holiday light display still occupying much of the space. On concourses around the arena, concession stands were boarded up and fan zones were curtained off.
And on two of the biggest plays of the night — a DeMar DeRozan 3pointer followed by a LaMarcus Aldridge putback to give the Spurs the lead in the final minute — the noise level in the arena barely changed.
“You’ve gotta generate your own excitement,” Popovich said.
To be sure, almost every part of it is weird for the players, too. Between the COVID-19 testing and protocols, crowdless games, and holiday week travel, nothing about the past few days have felt ordinary.
“There is definitely a lot going on, and that creates a vibe in itself,” Spurs guard Patty Mills said.
During a pregame
Zoom — talking via Internet to a sports writer who happened to be a few hundred feet from him — Popovich pointed to what he called “a little gizmo” that he wears constantly to help with contact tracing. When the Spurs go on the road, they’re allowed to go only to NBA-approved restaurants, and even getting on and off of planes and in and out of hotels requires more planning than usual.
“Things are a little more complicated,” Popovich said.
That’s how it goes when the biggest threat — to the NBA’s season, to its fans, and to the communities the teams play in — is a virus.
As for the days when danger could be seen, and reported?
The Spurs, like so many others, would like to deal with those worries again.