Colorado Governor Jared Polis has signed off on professional sporting events being played in the state without fans in attendance, according to Nicki Jhabvala of TheAthletic.com.
Polis said Colorado will be ready to host sporting events as soon as the leagues themselves are ready to return to action.
“We’re certainly ready as soon as the leagues are ready,” Polis said. I talked to the baseball commissioner (Rob Manfred) today. I think their protocols look really good and we’re certainly excited to get them going as soon as they’re ready to go.”
Polis’ comments come on the heels of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and California Governor Gavin Newsom also indicating an openness for sports to be held in their states if several precautionary measures are in place and with fans not allowed to attend. Polis is open to a handful of fans attending games in Colorado as a symbolic gesture and in so few a number that distancing is easy to maintain.
“I did suggest to the (MLB) commissioner that they maybe have 10 or 15 people they honor and allow free to represent the rest of us at every game, like nurses, members of our military night. I think that’s symbolically important. It’s easy to have 10, 15 people at a distance from one another. And we can all watch vicariously through them and we can watch on TV, but I would love to see some members of the community honored in a safe way.”
It’s the latest in a growing push to get sports leagues back playing after being shutdown completely for the last two months.
Baseball would be the first to return as football won’t be played until the fall. Polis is hopeful circumstances allow for things to progress back toward normal into football season.
“There’s more time before they have their protocols for playing,” Polis said. “But I think, again, if there’s a way to do it in a safe way, and that includes, hopefully at that point, some folks can go in the stadium — I sure hope so — it’d be great. If it’s one every four seats or whatever, the more, the merrier as long as it’s not putting everyone in danger.”