The Pittsburgh Steelers are still holding out hope that they will be able to play home games in front of their fans during the 2020 season.
Last week, The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan wrote that the NFL is going to allow teams an opportunity to work out their own seating volume for home games. He says that the league will not mandate a one-size-fits-all policy for attendance.
“The NFL will let teams set different attendance capacity limits when the schedule starts in August with the preseason, meaning some clubs could play in front of full, or nearly full stadiums and some before no fans.
“The league communicated to clubs that they follow local health covid-19 guidelines on social distancing rules, which vary greatly state to state… In other words, as of now, the NFL will not dictate capacity thresholds…”
When I asked for a response to that post, Steelers director of communications Burt Lauten emailed me on Monday evening, “We will continue to work with health officials around the state while following the proper protocols and guidelines by the CDC when preparing Heinz Field for the 2020 season. At this time, we remain optimistic we will play our home games as scheduled in front of our fans with the understanding that we will follow the NFL and government regulations to maintain the safety of our fans, players and staff.”
The Steelers’ “optimistic” sense about having fans at home games dovetails with the Pirates’ return to PNC Park for workouts this week. And according to the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, Major League Baseball has the ability to allow fans at some point if the war against the virus starts to turn.
Now the question becomes will Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf allow that to happen in Pittsburgh?
An email Monday from Allegheny County communications director Amie Downs says that Allegheny County “feels comfortable with the plan for returning to play” for the Pirates. A reminder, that’s without fans to start. And she deferred the notion of potential for fans at Heinz Field to the state.
This discussion coincides with reinstated restrictions in Pittsburgh and across Allegheny County in the wake of a recent covid-19 spike. On Sunday, the county shut down dine-in alcohol service at bars and restaurants and issued quarantine recommendations for people returning from out of state.
The timing of those two divergent stories creates a difficult public relations situation for local officials when it comes to handling questions about how they would view mass gatherings of sports fans in what is quickly becoming “the near future.”
On frequent occasions since protests against police mistreatment of minorities began in our region at the end May, county officials have tamped down any connection between those events and the spread of the disease.
For months, the state government has told us to restrict public gatherings. Even in our shaky “green phase,” the stated limit is 250 people. Because the disease is so contagious, any gathering greater than that could be a recipe for huge spread.
Yet no such restrictions have been enforced regarding the protests even though we’ve witnessed large numbers of people gathering at numerous times over the last month.
Local civic leaders are blaming the recent rise in positive cases on the population at large for failing to wear masks in public, plus close contact in bars, restaurants, churches and children’s sporting events.
“Very few (positive cases) have indicated that they attended marches, rallies or protests in days before first experiencing symptoms or learning they had covid-19,” Downs said. “At this time, there does not appear to be any indication that covid-19 has spread among people attending protests, rallies or marches.”
I’m skeptical. For a disease as insidious as coronavirus, did it somehow mutate into a strand that has a social conscience? It leaves the protesters alone, but it gets the folks at Primanti Bros.?
Yes, I know the marches have been outside. Yes, I agree that most — but certainly not all — of the protesters have been masked. Indeed failure to “mask up” and overcrowded bars are likely a bigger deal.
Yet, to infer an incredibly contagious disease doesn’t zip between thousands of people linking arms, marching, chanting and lying in the street is completely counter to every social distancing guideline that helped Pittsburgh suppress covid-19 numbers at the outset of this public health crisis.
But, I’ll buy in. I’ll shelve my cynicism. The protests have had next to zero impact on our region’s recent case load.
Consider me on board.
Then — theoretically — that should be great news when it comes to allowing fans at stadiums, right?
Right … ????
I’m pausing here so our local leaders realize the pretzels they’ll become, twisting themselves in knots to make it sound like there’s a difference in how the disease spreads.
Granted, there is a huge difference in terms of racial importance. In terms of perception. In terms of improving relations with a community that is rightfully angry.
I get it. One topic is a major social movement. The other is a businessman’s special against the Milwaukee Brewers on a Tuesday afternoon.
However — to the earlier point — the county is maintaining those big picture things aren’t factors in its findings. The county insist it’s not about optics. It’s about science. It’s about data gathered through anecdotal contact tracing efforts.
That data leads these experts to believe a few thousand appropriately masked people who may have been strangers can march down Liberty Avenue locking arms and kneeling for a few hours, allegedly without spreading the virus. So why can’t four appropriately masked family members sit outside at PNC Park?
Seriously? What is the greater covid threat? Seven thousand ticket holders spread out within a 36,000-seat stadium or a few thousand crammed tightly together in Market Square?
How about 20,000 people in Heinz Field’s vast 67,000-seat expanse in September versus the crowds we saw engaged by police in East Liberty? What’s safer?
None of this is to draw into question the need or reason for the protests. It is, however, an effort to question a flaw in logic if local leaders push back on the Steelers or Pirates if they want to sell tickets to masked, outdoor patrons.
Of course that’s only if we get to the point where this recent bump in cases dwindles by late August.
If … if … our region’s leaders truly buy what they are selling about the minimal connection between marches and the spike, then consideration for crowds at games shouldn’t sound as crazy as it may have a week ago.
Or they can just tell everybody “Eh, it’s different ‘cuz we say it is. Now go back inside again.” I’m sure that’ll go over well. Let me know how that turns out.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
Categories: Pirates/MLB | Sports | Steelers/NFL | Breakfast With Benz
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Tim Benz: Steelers 'remain optimistic' they'll play in front of fans. Will local leaders allow that? - TribLIVE
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