Coronavirus concerns on the rise

Some college conferences close hoops tourneys to fans

With just over two weeks until baseball’s opening day, Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos said Tuesday he’s “a little bit” concerned about traveling to Seattle with the coronavirus outbreak in Washington state.

“I know the season starts in Seattle, and we know how Seattle is right now,” Chirinos said. “That’s 21⁄2 weeks from now, so I think we’re going to hear some news when we’re getting close to opening day.”

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said the state is preparing for potentially tens of thousands of cases, based on estimates of the spread of the disease. The Mariners are scheduled to open their season at home against the Rangers on March 26 and Major League Baseball has said all opening weekend series were still set to run as planned.

None of North America’s major sports leagues has postponed games or barred fans in a bid to keep them safe, but discussions about next steps have been ongoing for weeks and such measures have become common elsewhere.

That said, the Ivy League on Tuesday canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and two other Division I conferences announced they will restrict fan access to their postseason games because of concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Ivy League’s four-team tournaments were scheduled to be played Friday through Sunday at Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Mass. The Ivy League instead will award its automatic NCAA Tournament bids to the regularseason champions, the Princeton women and Yale men.

Later Tuesday, the Mid-American Conference said it was implementing a restricted attendance policy at its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Cleveland this week. That announcement came on the heels of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recommending that all indoor sporting events in the state be played without spectators on site.

The Big West said its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in Southern California will be played without spectators. Most of those game will be played at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.

Conference tournaments have been going on all over the country since last week at venues big and small. Most of the biggest conferences, such as the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference, begin their men’s tournaments this week at large arenas in major cities.

The NCAA men’s and women’s D-I tournaments begin next week. The NCAA responded quickly to the Ivy League’s announcement, saying it planned to play its games at the scheduled sites with no adjustments to fan access, but is monitoring the situation.

“NCAA member schools and conferences make their own decisions regarding regular season and conference tournament play,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said Tuesday in a statement. “... We will make decisions on our events based on the best, most current public health guidance available.”

A few hours later, after the governor of Ohio announced his recommendation for all high school college and professional teams to play without spectators in attendance, the NCAA released another brief, less definitive statement.

“We are consulting with public health officials and our COVID-19 advisory panel, ... and will make decisions in the coming days,” the NCAA said.

The first four games of the NCAA men’s tournament are scheduled to be played in Dayton, Ohio, and first and second-round games are scheduled for Cleveland on March 20 and 22.

Scores of top-tier soccer games in Europe will all be played in empty stadiums in coming days and weeks.

■ The NHL was also assessing the impact of a decision by Santa Clara County health officials in California to ban gatherings of more than 1,000 people in response to the spread of the virus. The Sharks have games scheduled for March 19, 21 and 29.

■ The NBA told teams last week to prepare for the possibility of playing games in empty arenas, which Lakers star LeBron James initially said he wanted no part of and wouldn’t play, but said Tuesday he would do whatever the NBA tells teams to do.

■ Champions League soccer matches are also being affected, with several high-profile contests to be played without fans.

■ Members of Arsenal’s playing squad went into self-isolation in a precautionary move, forcing the immediate postponement of the club’s Premier League game at Manchester City on Wednesday. Arsenal players came into contact with Olympiakos owner Evangelos Marinakis after a Europa League match on Feb. 27. Marinakis announced Tuesday that he had contracted COVID-19.

■ One of the year’s biggest tennis tournaments, at Indian Wells in California, was canceled this week.