The Golden State Warriors are the first NBA team to announce plans to play a home game without fans in attendance in light of the coronavirus outbreak, team officials said Wednesday.
“Due to escalating concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and in consultation with the City and County of San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors announced today that tomorrow night’s game vs. the Brooklyn Nets at Chase Center will be played without fans,” a statement from the team said.
The decision is only in effect until March 21, so the Warriors’ face-off with the Nets is the only game affected. But Chase Center, the Warriors’ stadium in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, is also relocating one minor league game it had scheduled and canceling or postponing three concerts it was set to host.
The move was made in order to comply with San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s Wednesday announcement that the city is issuing a moratorium on any events with more than 1,000 people present. It’s not yet clear when that policy will go into effect.
Breed said in a statement Wednesday that she’d alerted the team to the city’s plans before announcing them.
“Today I spoke with the Warriors to discuss the steps were taking to cancel large events and they are in support of our efforts,” she said in a statement.
As of Tuesday, there have been 157 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in California, with about 100 of those in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and 14 in San Francisco proper. There have been three deaths in the state linked to the virus, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on Wednesday.