NCAA Basketball Tournaments To Be Played Without Fans Due To Virus
Now it's getting serious.
The NCAA has announced that the Men's and Women's NCAA Tournaments will be played without fans in attendance.
The outbreak of COVID-19, or Coronavirus as it's commonly known, has caused issued across the globe. Large scale events like South by Southwest in Austin, Texas have been canceled over concerns of the virus. Entire countries, like Italy, have been placed on lock-down.
There have been rumblings for a few weeks that the NCAA may do something drastic in response to the illness, and today it happened. NCAA President Mark Emmert has announced that the attendance to the Division 1 Men's and Women's Basketball tournaments will be limited to "essential staff and limited family attendance." Meaning fans will be banned from games.
This is the largest response to the virus outbreak in the United States so far.
Thousands of fans regularly attend NCAA Tournament games across the country. Bringing in millions of dollars to the NCAA, local arenas, conferences, and cities.