Cal Athletics to limit public attendance to home events until March 29
Cal announced it was suspending classes Monday in response to the coronavirus outbreak
Cal Athletics announced it would start restricting attendance to home events beginning Wednesday, March 11. The announcement comes after the university's decision Monday to suspend in-person instruction and campus-sponsored activities of more than 150 attendees in response to the novel coronavirus and Covid-19 outbreak.
Until the end of spring break on Sunday, March 29, only student-athletes, coaches, sports medicine staff, game officials, operational and administrative staff and credentialed media will have the permission to attend athletic competitions held at the University of California, Berkeley campus.
There have been no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on campus as of Wednesday; the university is taking these steps proactively to help protect at-risk populations.
Cal fans who purchased tickets to events through March 29, can exchange their tickets for a future Cal Athletics event of the same sport at no charge, request a refund, or donate their ticket to a local nonprofit and can make arrangements at the Cal Athletics ticket office and by phone. In the meantime, the university is also working to have home games streamed online and will make details available on CalBears.com.
Cal Athletics notes it will make another decision before March 30 to determine whether to continue the restrictions on public attendance.
The actual impact appears to be minimal as most of the Cal teams have scheduled road trips (not too surprising given it does coincide with the campus' spring break). Softball and Baseball each have just one home series out of the three weekends. Softball draws between 100 to 400+ in their to-be-upgraded facility last year (this weekend is their home opener). Baseball home games this year had drawn about 500+ people.
what would really suck is if this happened when we go to the Rose Bowl...oh wait!