49ers head to Arizona after Santa Clara County’s COVID ban on games, practices.
Niners to play home games in Arizona because of county directive
SANTA CLARA >> The 49ers are taking their ball and going to a new home in Arizona.
State Farm Stadium in Glendale will host the 49ers’s next two games, because of Santa Clara County’s health directive banning contact sports over at least the next three weeks amid a COVID-19 surge.
The 49ers, on the Arizona Cardinals’ field, will play on Monday night against the Buffalo Bills and then vs. Washington on Sunday, Dec. 13.
The 49ers (5-6) have yet to announce where they will move their practices and, essentially, their entire operations with the potential of not returning to their Santa Clara facility the rest of the season.
“The biggest thing for me is us all leaving our families. We’re all human like everyone else,” coach Kyle Shanahan said after Sunday’s 23-20 win over the host Los Angeles
Rams. “It’s a huge deal to leave your family for the month of December. It’s a huge deal. This virus is a huge deal.”
A lthough the 49ers would have liked to practice this week in a nearby county outside Santa Clara County’s borders, Shanahan is expected to announce today they will get an early jump on their Arizona encampment and head there Wednesday.
The most natural fit is to follow how the Cardinals do training camp: Practice on fields outside State Farm Stadium and stay at a neighboring hotel, all of which offers turnkey operations to also stage meetings, distribute food and follow other quarantine needed measures to abide by Maricopa County’s protocol.
The Cardinals’ practice facility in Tempe is not a viable option simply because the Cardinals are occupying it, but nearby college or other fields and vacancy-friendly resorts are alternatives while abiding by local health protocol. Shanahan did not speak Monday as he normally would the day after a game, deferring to today in hopes of providing more clarity on travel plans. He did add Sunday: “I want a place that’s safe for us.”
Jed York, the 49ers’ CEO, expressed his gratitude to the Cardinals’ organization in a Monday morning tweet: “Thank you Michael Bidwell and the @AZCardinals for all of your help. Very appreciative of Arizona welcoming us during these unprecedented times.”
York also tweeted that San Diego was not a viable option despite overtures from its mayor’s office.
After their games against Buffalo and Washington, the defending NFC champion 49ers will play at the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 20 before returning to State Farm Stadium to play the Cardinals on Dec. 26. The 49ers are to host the Seattle Seahawks in a Jan. 3 regular-season finale.
The 49ers will play as many games at State Farm Stadium in December as the Cardinals (6-5). None of their games overlap on the schedule, and their Dec. 26 meeting will be broadcast via Amazon Prime Video, Twitch and, locally, on NBC Sports Bay Area.
Although State Farm Stadium hosted 4,200 fans in the Cardinals’ past two games there, the general public is not allowed at the Cardinals’ game Sunday against the Rams because of rising COVID-19 cases in Arizona; family members of Cardinals players and staff can attend, however. It’s doubtful the 49ers will be afforded the same opportunity for Monday’s game to mitigate cross- community exposure.
The 49ers were stunned to learn Saturday of the county’s stricter guidelines, and Shanahan expre ssed “ex treme d is appointment” over that decision, which had the 49ers and their families scrambling for answers before a nd af ter Sunday’s win.
“That’s all we could talk about for the last 18 hours, because we got no answers from them,” Shanahan said.
In response Monday, Santa Clara County Executive Dr. Jeff Smith said the county has been in regular contact with the 49ers “for months.”
“It is hard for me to believe that the 49ers were surprised by the new orders given how serious the situation is both locally and across the country,” Smith said. “They received a notice of the new orders as soon as the orders were finalized, at the same time we notified the thousands of businesses impacted in the community.”
Maricopa County’s population is just over twice the size of Santa Clara County’s but it has recorded six times as many cases over the course of the pandemic (205,522 cases there to 34,292 in Santa Clara County). Over the seven days prior to Thanksgiving, Maricopa County reported more than twice as many new infections, even when accounting for population, at about 50.1/ 100K per day, compared to 19.1/100K in Santa Clara County.
Maricopa County (3,980) has recorded more than eight times more fatalities than Santa Clara County (476) over the course of the pandemic.
If Santa Clara County’s 14- day quarantine order for out- of-state travels remains in effect, that would nullify the 49ers’ chances of returning to Levi’s Stadium for that Seahawks game. The Cardinals face the Rams on the road that afternoon, so remaining in Arizona would be an option.
“We need a place to feel safe and stay. We’re going to have to stay in hotel or somewhere,” Shanahan added. “Second thing, we need practice field to play on and a stadium to play in. I’m not going to be that picky but we need some obvious things.”
Smith, the county executive, sounded baffled that the 49ers and other sports teams are even playing amid a pandemic.
“Historically, sportsmanship has been about building a team and protecting that team,” Smith said. “Coaches, managers and owners used to want to protect their players from harm. Those values seem to have been placed on hold during the COVID pandemic.
“If leaders want to protect their teams and communities, they should not play anywhere until it is safe. One might envision a reemergence of teambuilding if the teams spent their time building a COVID relief fund for the community rather than trying to put the community at more risk.”
Those comments won’t go over well with Shanahan or the 49ers, who, like other NFL teams, have been subject to daily testing for COVID-19 the past four months. Shanahan, at no point in his Sunday rant or earlier this season, has ever minimalized the risk of COVID-19, though he did get fined $100,000 by the NFL for not properly wearing a mask on the sideline in the 49ers’ season opener.
The 49ers had a seasonhigh nine players on the NFL’s COVID-19 reserve list last Monday, but five were cleared before their game against the Rams.