Stanford May have a Problem Hosting

[TheFarmFan]

SF has now banned large gatherings for two weeks, including Warriors games. I know I've been chicken littling, but this will be all sports soon. It's inevitable. So the question is how the NCAA can safely operate March Madness without crowds, since that is the BEST case scenario at this point.

I'm not sure it's even possible to go forward at this point, but if I were involved in mitigation planning, I'd be reconfiguring the way to host to limit the number of sites and accelerate the tournament calendar. It doesn't make any sense to spread it over 2.5 weeks since the longer this goes, the worse it will get. Fewer host sites, regionally-based placements, and accelerated calendar seem necessary if they can pull it off at all.

 

[Plebe]

SF has now banned large gatherings for two weeks, including Warriors games. I know I've been chicken littling, but this will be all sports soon. It's inevitable. So the question is how the NCAA can safely operate March Madness without crowds, since that is the BEST case scenario at this point.

I'm not sure it's even possible to go forward at this point, but if I were involved in mitigation planning, I'd be reconfiguring the way to host to limit the number of sites and accelerate the tournament calendar. It doesn't make any sense to spread it over 2.5 weeks since the longer this goes, the worse it will get. Fewer host sites, regionally-based placements, and accelerated calendar seem necessary if they can pull it off at all.

We know the talks among the decision-makers are hot and heavy as we speak.

I'll be surprised if they rush to a decision today or tomorrow. The whole situation seems to be evolving by the hour. Once they do pull the trigger in whichever direction, they'll have to live with it.

 

[UcMiami]

We know the talks among the decision-makers are hot and heavy as we speak.

I'll be surprised if they rush to a decision today or tomorrow. The whole situation seems to be evolving by the hour. Once they do pull the trigger in whichever direction, they'll have to live with it.

If they keep the same schedule, they might be able to do incremental adjustments. It seems to me the following would make sense:
1. Form the brackets based on geography more than seeding trying to limit all travel to at worst geographic regions for rounds 1+2 the first weekend and if possible avoiding current hot-spot locations (eg Portand rather than Seattle) with zero public attendance.

2. Determine status after the first weekend, and if green lighted determine available locations for 3 and 4 round games based again on avoiding hot spots and limiting travel locally/regionally.

3. Determine status again after the second weekend and determine location and timing for the final two rounds.

Problems with arena availability, local/state travel restrictions all play into this as well as screening for teams/coaches/support staff/facilities staff - elevated temperature is a crude method, but one South Korea used to screen access to public buildings and that Amherst College is planning to use for DIII tournament games it is hosting for essential staff and participants while banning the public.

 

[Floridaduck]

the impact on the career of a single athlete becomes less important

I completely agree that the effect on one single athlete is of minimal importance in the larger scheme of things. I never named any one player but the poster who did may have just wanted to put a human face on the overall crisis. I just thought that:

The impact to Sabrina Ionescu is at the bottom of what we should be caring about.

was kind of a cheap shot. Jeepers she and Lauren Cox and Chennedy and Megan and Ruthy and everybody else is going to be fine even if the tournament is canceled. Lots more mountains to climb. But it does make ME sad...

 

[Plebe]

Another big domino falls.

 

[Sifaka]

Disclaimer: I am not an M.D., and am a fan of UConn WBB and WCBB.

Just spoke with my next door neighbor, an M.D., and parent of another M.D.,
an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control. They confirmed what I've been reading on my class newsletter—contributions from numerous physician classmates with 40+ years of medical practice each. (1) This is a pandemic, as the head of the WHO confirmed today. (2) Without strenuous containment efforts, the number of people afflicted by the virus will double every week, and totally overwhelm our healthcare facilities. (3) As to the fatality rate, we simply do not know.

We do know how many have died, but don't know how many have had the illness.
Thus, X/Y=? where X=deaths, we don't know what Y is, and therefore cannot calculate the mortality rate.

I would love to see tournament games, and would be very sad if the kids can't play,
but serious illness and even death in my community is much worse than the loss of sporting events.

 

[j66kicker]

Another big domino falls.

So, as usual, the NCAA is not out in front, waiting to be dictated to by state governors, etc. Maybe the setup for games/attendees/venues will be different by state (SMH #$%#&##!!)

 

[Plebe]

So, as usual, the NCAA is not out in front, waiting to be dictated to by state governors, etc. Maybe the setup for games/attendees/venues will be different by state (SMH #$%#&##!!)

Maybe they can relocate the entire tournament to a remote, frigid-weather locale far from any known cases, such as:

Nome, Alaska
Whitehorse, Yu-kon, Canada [TIL that this site autocorrects the spelling of the Canadian province to "UConn"]
Qaanaaq, Greenland
McMurdo Station, Antarctica

 

[WestCoast]

I completely agree that the effect on one single athlete is of minimal importance in the larger scheme of things. I never named any one player but the poster who did may have just wanted to put a human face on the overall crisis. I just thought that:

was kind of a cheap shot. Jeepers she and Lauren Cox and Chennedy and Megan and Ruthy and everybody else is going to be fine even if the tournament is canceled. Lots more mountains to climb. But it does make ME sad...

Not intended to be a cheap shot. I responded to a poster who was fretting about the fairness to Ionescu in that she postponed going pro for a year to try to win a national title. The reality is that we don't know how bad this virus truly will be. I have a relative whose team will be playing in the tourney, assuming the WBB tournament goes on as is currently planned. I wish her NCAA tourney experience would be in front of a big crowd. It won't be, but I certainly understand the why....

 

[MSUFan2003]

Quick question - do you know how many covid 19 test kits you have in your hospital (if any) and how long it takes to get a result after the test?

VT had few and it took 2-3 days for results because there are so few labs set up to run the test as of Sunday. The total tests administered in the US at this moment is under 10,000 - an average of under 200 per state. South Korea for example has already administered over 200,000.

While the number of 'confirmed' cases in the US is pretty small at the moment, the availability of the tests has a lot to do with that I suspect.

NB - hospitals are still scrambling to come up with treatment protocols for covid 19 patients - this is still new and the best data is coming out of China, but the information and data is still in flux.

I don't know how many kits we have, but, when we have to send out labs, we use Mayo, and it takes 3-5 days for results. I'm going to ask how many kits we have when I go in on Friday and see if I can find anything out.

 

[j66kicker]

Not intended to be a cheap shot. I responded to a poster who was fretting about the fairness to Ionescu in that she postponed going pro for a year to try to win a national title. The reality is that we don't know how bad this virus truly will be. I have a relative whose team will be playing in the tourney, assuming the WBB tournament goes on as is currently planned. I wish her NCAA tourney experience would be in front of a big crowd. It won't be, but I certainly understand the why....

That was my exact thought. So Sabrina foregoes her WNBA and overseas pro basketball salaries to come back and be an amateur athlete and "finish her business", and this is what she gets.

NCAA and the TV people need to figure out a common sense way to hold the tournament with no fans, and cover it in a way to keep it exciting (Mic all the players up? Satou head-cam?). The TV audience would at least increase by the number of locked-out in-person spectators.

I think @Floridaduck is more tuned in to my intent, using Sabrina as an example and sympathizing with the athletes a la a his/her example of the 1984 Olympics. Sorry if it came across as "fretting" or suggesting that the individual athletes were more important than the public health. If Sabrina doesn't finish her business because the Ducks get beat in the (fanless) Portland Regional by UConn, I will not be fretting for her one bit.

 

[TheFarmFan]

I don't know how many kits we have, but, when we have to send out labs, we use Mayo, and it takes 3-5 days for results. I'm going to ask how many kits we have when I go in on Friday and see if I can find anything out.

Thanks MSU. I know that medical providers like you are already overburdened as it is, but we really appreciate you taking the time to share what you're seeing on the ground. I'm confident your eyes and ears will be even more valuable for the rest of us in the days and weeks to come. THANK YOU!

 

[UcMiami]

Critical care rate is a different beast than death rate and some data seems to suggest that hospital admissions and critical/ICU care is not as age biased as the death rate. That is an important distinction since the issue with death rate seems greatly influenced by whether health facilities become overwhelmed on a local level - when they do, the death rate can spike as they start having to choose the patients they can care for based on their prior medical history or simply their age.

 

[willtalk]

Reminds me of the Olympic Games boycotts in 1980 and 1984 over global politics. Yucchhh...
Olympic athletes after years of training and at the peak of their powers... get to stay home and twiddle their thumbs.
"Eighty nations were represented at the Moscow Games – the smallest number since 1956. Led by the United States, 66 countries boycotted the games entirely because of the Soviet–Afghan War."
"The 1984 Games were boycotted by a total of fourteen Eastern Bloc countries, including the Soviet Union and East Germany, in response to the American-led boycott of the previous 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan"

That boycott will always be a sore spot for me. Jimmy Carter had no right to force that decision on the Olympic committee to keep the USA out of the games. The Russians were justified in supporting the secular government because the radical Islamists were a threat to one of their Islamic Republics on the Afgan border. The group the USA was supporting was the Taliban who ended up being a major problem to them later.

 

[Plebe]

Well it’s a good thing this whole thread is moot cuz it’s fixing to get locked.