‘LACK OF COMPLIANCE’
Officials call foul on organizers of wrestling tournament
OAKS » A wrestling tournament in Montgomery County has raised concern about following health and safety protocols as the COVID-19 pandemic carries on.
“We did intervene in a very large sports gathering over the weekend where the business entity that was running that event had submitted a plan to the health department, which had been approved and they were in almost complete lack of compliance with the plan they submitted,” Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Val Arkoosh said.
Arkoosh addressed the incident during a virtual COVID-19 press briefing.
The Battle in theBurgh, a twoday tournament organized byTyrantWrestling, was held Sept. 19 and Sept. 20 at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, off Station Avenue inOaks, according to the company’s website.
Pam Lawn, director for environmental field services for the Montgomery County Office of Public Health, said she received a safety plan from the event’s organizers prior to the event.
After offering her recommendations on the plan, she said the organizer had agreed to comply with several types of health and safety guidelines including requiring masks, social distancing and temperature checks for peo
ple entering the facility.
Just a few days later, county of f icials were alerted to a different situation altogether.
Lawn said an area resident who witnessed “a large crowd at the expo center” on Sunday morning paid to enter the event and documented what was going on inside. The photos then made their way back to county officials, which prompted Lawn, along with a county solicitor and an Upper Providence Township police officer, to investigate the matter personally.
“There was a lot of people there, and there was no social distancing going on at all,” Lawn said.
The health department official estimated there could have beenmore than 1,000 people in attendance, including spectators.
“We just wanted to see whatwas going on, andwe talked to the event host, and just told them this ... event can’t happen like this,” Lawn said.
According to guidance from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration, which read in part that “each individual game or practice at a complexmust adhere to the gathering occupancy limits (25 or fewer people indoors, 250 or fewer outdoors), and the facility as a whole may not exceed 50 percent of total occupancy otherwise permitted by law.”
Social distancing and sanitizing guidelines also need to be enforced, according to state guidelines.
Lawn added that the protocols permit having “25 people per mat.” The tournament had 50 mats across two halls, which amounted to a more than 100,000-square-foot area, according to Lawn.
While Lawn said her office was assured there would be spacingmeasures in place for the people in attendance, it was a contrasting scene.
“They had chairs lined up at each mat, roped three rows deep zip-tied together, so there was no social distancing at all,” she said.
The event “was paused for probably a good hour,” while county representatives talkedwith the event’s host, who Lawn said eventually agreed to augment the setup tomatch the original plan.
However, as someone tasked with keeping people safe and healthy during a public health crisis, Lawn said the ordeal was unsettling.
“It was upsetting because we try to help people through their plans because they may not understand all the guidance so
... we give them feedback so that they know and understandwhat they need to do, and it’s social distancing, it’s wearing a mask, it’s sanitizing in between meets, and it’s increasing that sanitizing high touch surfaces,” Lawn said. “It’s all that stuff there’s a lot you have to incorporate, and … he understood, but I just don’t think therewas any attempt to follow the plan because when you zip-tie chairs together it doesn’t allowfor social distancing so ... I was just surprised.
It wasn’t what I had thought.”
Evidently, the wrestling company was slated to hold another event next month but were not permitted to do so following last weekend’s event.
“Tyrant Wrestling submitted its plans for correct social distancing procedures, however, it appears they failed to execute the approved plans, and as a result, we have removed a TyrantWrestling event that had been previously scheduled to be held in October
from our calendar,” said a spokesperson for the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in a statement.
“They’ve received written information from our Office of Public Health, as well as the expo center, that they are not going to bewelcomed back at this time for that event,” Arkoosh said on Wednesday.
WhileArkoosh andLawn agreed that they’d appreciate the tournament’s presence in the future, they did express their reservations with wrestling amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We seewrestling still as a very high-risk activity and because of the obvious close proximity that the sport requires,” Arkoosh said.
Lawn stressed that event organizers collaborate with county public health officials to ensure the proper steps are taken with respect to gatherings.
“We want tomitigate the spread of the virus so our goal is to keep everybody safe and healthy so we want to keep those limitations on large gatherings,” she said. “Wewant to follow the state guidance.”
MediaNews Group reached out to TyrantWrestling, and a representative from the company said that “we have no comment at this time.”
We did intervene in a very large sports gatheringover the weekendwhere the business entity thatwas running that event hadsubmittedaplanto thehealthdepartment, which hadbeenapprovedandthey were in almost complete lack of compliance with the plan they submitted.”
— Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Val Arkoosh