Due to COVID-19, many sports had to put seasons on pause or cancel them entirely. For those teams that did play, most of their seasons had few to no fans in the stands.

“To me it’s very unfortunate that there’s no fans. It makes the games very subtle and low-ended. I always enjoy watching games on TV but going to the court to watch them live is an amazing experience. I’m excited to have fans back and I hope all the Covid restrictions will be met and able to have The Garden and other gyms remain open to fans while still being safe and cautious,” said freshman Maeve Brush.

Close contact sports like hockey and football had several players test positive.

“With all the positive testing on the teams it seemed that they [the athletes] came back rather fast – it didn’t seem like a two week quarantine,” said Brush.

Before the vaccines became widely available, some people said they would like to see packed stadiums, while other fans said they want to stay safe while enjoying their favorite sport. 

“I think they’re doing the right thing. It would be very selfish and irresponsible of all sports teams to let people pack the stadiums game after game,” said freshman Jack Taliceo. “I think that there should be a very limited number of people, if at all, and people should sit far away from each other. The players need the hype from the stands, but they also need to be healthy to keep playing.”

Freshman Gavin Finn agreed.

“I feel that if there are rules and procedures in place which require distancing and masks as well as helping to keep the hallways less crowded and have handwashing or hand sanitizer available then I think it would be reasonable to allow it,” said Finn. “However if there aren’t enough protections in place to keep people from creating crowds then the stadiums could become extremely dangerous even if everyone had masks on.”

As of May 29, 2021 sporting venues will be allowed to open at full capacity – a change that could alter the dynamics of these professional competitions.  

“Seeing people in the stands give life back to the game of basketball,” said freshman Matthew Vigeant. “When people are in the stands the game has more energy and gives the players more energy when playing with the support of their own fans.”