As the NBA prepares for a potentially massive financial windfall in 2021, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Thursday that the league is hoping to host fans next season, likely in suites and courtside, as a means of maintaining social distance while also boosting revenue a bit.
The coronavirus pandemic has made life fluid, and a clinical vaccine will play a role in this too. NBA’s goal is some amount of fans to start the season, depending on each market’s restrictions. Courtside fans, for instance, would be about 10-to-12 feet away, sources said. https://t.co/9I9cdN1gN3
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 5, 2020
As Charania notes, these fans would be asked to wear masks, stay distanced from one another, and potentially even get tested prior to entry. Charania also reports the capacity would likely be subject to the public health guidelines in each market, as well as the potential availability of a vaccine.
For a league that prioritized full safety in its Bubble over the summer and pushed back its reset many weeks in order to develop protocols, it would be a big leap to integrate the wildcard element of fans as soon as December or January. What this mostly shows is just how desperate the financial situation is, just as it was a driving force for the NFL when fans were allowed into pro football games in late summer.
It’s too early to know exactly what this will look like, but the league and players’ union are clearly moving toward an agreement here, and fans attending games would be an unexpected twist should both sides agree.