The Los Angeles barely had time to celebrate their 2020 championship before it was time to turn their attention to what remains an uncertain future. After much jockeying back and forth between the league, the owners, and players’ union, they’ve agreed to start the 2020-2021 season on Dec. 22, which will make this offseason one of the shortest on record.
Ideally, the league wanted to wait to resume next season until they could have a plan in place to get fans safely back into arenas, but the financial implications ultimately won out, which still leaves plenty of logistical questions about what the games will look like when they return to the court.
Although there’s been talk about allowing small numbers into stadiums and instituting temperature checks and social distancing requirements, some teams aren’t taking any chances. The Laker, for instance, announced on Wednesday that they will not be allowing fans into Staples Center when the new season tips off next month. Here’s more from the team release:
As of now, the Lakers have no plans to allow fans in Staples Center for the start of the 2020-21 season, the team announced. pic.twitter.com/nSmWCP3QGh
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 12, 2020
Of course, that’s not to say fans won’t be permitted at some point as the season progresses. The news comes as COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country. Vaccine trials from Pfizer have shown promising results, although it still could be a while before one goes through the process of being approved and brought into wider circulation. For now, it seems clear other teams will take similar precautionary measure until it is safe to do otherwise.