AAC Tournament, which WSU starts Friday, won’t allow fans in the stands
Following nationwide concern about the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the American Athletic Conference announced Wednesday evening that only teams, essential personnel and family of players will be allowed in attendance for its conference men’s tournament at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
The announcement came the night before the tournament was set to begin with Thursday’s first-round play and after other major conferences, including the Big 12, announced the same measures for their tournaments. Wichita State doesn’t play its first game in the tournament until Friday’s 2 p.m. quarterfinals against the winner between No. 5 Connecticut and No. 12 Tulane. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
Commissioner Mike Aresco announced Wednesday night that the tournament “will limit attendance to student-athletes coaches, essential event, team and conference staff, ESPN personnel, credentialed media and immediate family members of the 12 participating teams.”
“We and the Dickies Arena staff have been monitoring the COVID-19 virus situation in conjunction with local health authorities,” Aresco said. “Our top priority is always the health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes, coaches, university administrators and personnel, media, event staff and fans.”
The decision from the AAC followed NCAA President Mark Emmert’s decision Wednesday afternoon to only allow “essential staff and limited family attendance” for NCAA men’s and women’s tournament games following discussions with public health officials and the NCAA’s own COVID-19 advisory panel.
“While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States,” Emmert said in a statement. “This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes.”
The NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel released its own statement on Wednesday afternoon, stating that they believed the games could continue — just without the mass gathering of fans in arenas.
“Given these considerations, coupled with a more unfavorable outcome of COVID-19 in older adults — especially those with underlying chronic medical conditions — we recommend against sporting events open to the public,” the statement read. “We do believe sport events can take place with only essential personnel and limited family attendance, and this protects our players, employees, and fans.”
No school is affected more by the decision than Wichita State, which estimated it would have more than 2,000 fans make the trek to Fort Worth, to bar fans from attending the conference tournament games. WSU coach Gregg Marshall said there was little doubt WSU would have the best home-court advantage of any team in the tournament.
“There’ll be more Shocker fans than anybody else,” Marshall said.
A bus transporting the WSU pep band and cheer squad turned back to Wichita on Wednesday evening. According to a member of the pep band, the bus was already in Oklahoma when they received word of the decision.
Wichita State University announced on Wednesday evening that its pandemic team is continuing to monitor the COVID-19 situation and plans on meeting Thursday morning to discuss contingency plans for the university.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 7:54 PM.
.jpg)