General public will be kept away from Big 12 basketball tournaments starting Thursday
The Big 12 is limiting fans for its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments beginning Thursday because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby announced on Wednesday.
The men’s tournament will be in its quarterfinal round at the Sprint Center and the women will be playing their first-round games at Municipal Auditorium.
Each team will receive 125 tickets for each game. The buildings will be cleared of ticket holders after each game. Cheerleaders, bands or dance teams will not be in the building: only family, friends, credentialed media and essential staff, the conference announced.
KU announced it “will cancel all planned fan activities surrounding the men’s and women’s Big 12 and NCAA Basketball Championships, including pregame parties and pep rallies.” The fan fest at the KC Live stage in the Power & Light District will be canceled, though but the rest of the KC Live block businesses will remain open.
Also canceled is the Big 12 Run scheduled for Saturday, the KC Sports Commission announced.
Tickets purchased by fans will be refunded, Bowlsby said.
“The attempt is to absolutely minimize the number of people that are here but still to find a way to conduct the events and actually get the opportunity to play the games,” Bowlsby said.
Bowsbly said the decision was made Wednesday afternoon after being given advice by the KU Medical Center, which is a Sprint Center partner, the Centers for Disease Control, public health officials and Kansas City officials.
“We don’t do this lightly,” Bowlsby said. “We are blessed to have the best basketball tournament in all of college basketball. To have to take these steps is painful for everyone that’s involved. But this are unusual times, and we have taken the steps we think are appropriate.”
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, health department Director Rex Archer and emergency medical services medical director Erica Carney issued a statement supporting the Big 12’s decision.
“While Kansas City was eager and prepared to host fans from across the country during the Big 12 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments this weekend, keeping our community — and their players — safe remains our top priority. We support the Big 12’s decision to limit fan attendance at all tournament games and we still look forward to welcoming the Big 12’s men’s and women’s teams to our region.
“As a reminder, there are still no confirmed COVID-19 cases in Kansas City, Missouri. We continue to closely monitor the situation and make decisions accordingly. We will continue providing updates as we have them.”
The announcement came about an hour after the NCAA announced it would conduct its Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments starting next week without spectators. The SEC, with Mizzou set to play Thursday night, as well as the Big Ten, Pac-12, Big East and American Athletic conferences also announced similar measures to limit attendance.
A day earlier, Bowlsby said the Big 12 tournaments would be played with spectators but didn’t rule out any possibility. But conversations on Wednesday changed the course of action.
Loud boos filled the Sprint Center during Oklahoma State’s 72-71 win over Iowa State when fans were told over the public address system that they would not be able to attend the rest of the tournament.
“Until today we have had no one tell us that having a building full of people was ill-advised,” Bowlsby said. “I was confident being in the crowd and we were assured it was safe to assemble those crowds.
“Today that began to change. Certainly the NCAA’s information was part of it.”
The men’s tournament averages close to 19,000 fans per session at Sprint Center. The women’s tournament is returning to Municipal for the first time since 2012.
This year, the buildings will echo with empty seats and fans will get their money back for tickets.
“We’ll certainly go through a refund process,” Bowlsby said. “We haven’t had an opportunity to talk with the folks here at the Sprint Center. A lot of the tickets are distributed by the schools themselves.
“I’d like to apologize to all of our fans that are not going to be able in the venues. They really look forward to this. I think it’s the best tournament of its kind in the country. I’m very sorry to disrupt what I know is a much-anticipated event for a lot of people.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 6:20 PM with the headline "General public will be kept away from Big 12 basketball tournaments starting Thursday."