As the United States continues to prepare for the impact of Corona Virus on the country multiple sporting events have had to adjust. San Francisco announced that events with 1000 or more people will be banned, forcing the Warriors to play games without fans for the foreseeable future, and the exhibition match between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics was canceled entirely.
Following that trend will be Ohio, host of the first four games of the NCAA Tournament. Ohio Governor Mike Dewine held a press conference Wednesday saying that he would sign an executive order prohibiting large gathering type events. As such the “First Four” of the NCAA Tournament in Dayton is expected to be played with no fans in attendance, and this will likely impact the games being played in Cleveland on March 20 and 22.
The governor of Ohio further clarified: The state will issue an order that NCAA tournament games in Ohio, which included the First Four in Dayton, will be played without spectators.
— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) March 11, 2020
Asked directly if the NCAA games in Dayton/Cleveland will be held without spectators, DeWine says: "We'll have an order, yes."
— Dylan Burkhardt (@umhoops) March 11, 2020
This honestly isn’t a huge surprise and it’s slowly feeling more likely that multiple games of the tournament will be in this same kind of environment. How deep into the tournament this goes will depend entirely on how long it takes the Coronavirus pandemic to be brought under control. With Houston set to host the Sweet 16 and Elite 8, and after canceling the Rodeo Wednesday there seems to be a good chance that even some of the tournament’s biggest games could be played without fans in attendance.
