Cal State LA athletics follows suit and goes fanless
The Jesse Owens Track and Field is home to the track and soccer team. When unattended, the track is open to the general public.
Cal State LA continued to take measures to maintain the health of the university community. In order to comply with the California Department of Public Health recommendations, President William Covino issued an email on Tuesday stating: “we are promoting social distancing by canceling all public events effective today, March 10, through May 31, 2020. This decision covers all events and gatherings, including, but not limited to: banquets, luncheons, receptions, dinner galas, meetings, conferences, workshops, sporting events, guided campus tours and performances.”
Despite the cancellation, Facilities and Events Manager for athletics, Damien “Lucky” Smith, shared that the athletic staff is currently waiting on the “higher administration” to release a statement across the department. Smith feels “tentatively” confident the administration will allow “active games” to continue, “but are going to have them fanless.”
Several coaches and athletes participating in spring sports on campus were concerned about this approach, but were relieved to hear that the competitions would proceed.
Most stated that collectively it would not affect their gameplay, but worried about the moral support and home field disadvantage this presents. For Seniors, the lack of cheers from family and friends is disappointing knowing this is their last season.
The university’s decision introduced several concerns for student-athletes that go beyond the game. Their concerns included: classes resuming in person and athlete employment at sporting events.
Athletes like track and field sprinter Nicholas Harper said, “fans help with payments from tickets and even the gear. Without the fans and family, we won’t have any money coming in and have to try and find another source of income.”
He went on to say, “when it comes to online classes, we do not learn better that way and it’s hard, because we are not in the classroom interacting with one another.”
Thus far, women’s tennis has been cancelled for the week, and baseball will be the first home event with no fans this weekend.
Janessa Mata • Mar 11, 2020 at 6:50 pm
I’m one of the volleyball players you guys interviewed today. (I spoke about the issue of putting student-athletes out of work by not allowing fans to come to games) Something I thought of that we really have no answer for, currently. The NCAA has certain rules regarding how many years student-athletes can compete. In sum, student-athletes have four years of eligibility and the option to red shirt for two years in order to save eligibility. For example, freshmen who are low in ranks for their position may choose to red shirt so that they have the opportunity to actually compete for their whole four years instead of wasting a year sitting on the bench. Additionally, athletes are entitled to a medical red shirt year if an injury precludes them from competing. However, if the athlete gets injured after playing a certain amount of minutes in conference matches, they cannot take their red shirt year. So what happens now, if Cal State LA cancels all our matches this season? Cal State LA is one brick in the NCAA empire, and our decision to suspend games does not necessarily mean that the NCAA will agree. Do we lose a year of eligibility? Have we played too many minutes this season to warrant a medical red shirt year? This is especially troubling because eligibility is tied to scholarship money. I don’t know if the NCAA has even considered this issue. I haven’t heard anything about it. Beach Volleyball is technically our “off-season” so a better team to talk to would be baseball, because I know a lot of guys on our baseball team are trying to get drafted to the MLB. We have had MLB scouts come to our games to see our guys play. NCAA has rules against student athletes playing for other teams while they are registered members of the NCAA. It has to do with “amateurism”. Will our players be allowed to play for other teams to continue pursuing the draft? Will they have to forfeit the rest of their eligibility to do so?
This is kind of a lot of random things I thought about. Given the rigidity of the NCAA’s rules, it may get interesting if they try to take our year away. Every athlete would try to fight it. Anyways, I hope you look into this because I would really like to know the answers.