As Of Now, Fans Will Be Allowed At Winter Sports!
The North Dakota High School Activities Association Board of Directors in a meeting last evening, approved a set of guidelines that follow the North Dakota Smart Restart protocols. According to an article on KFYR-TV, the North Dakota High School Activities Association will allow 50 fans to attend a winter sports game. This is under the current "orange" COVID-19 threat level.
If we should move to "yellow" COVID-19 threat level, the number will double to 200. The "blue" COVID-19 threat level will allow normal attendance. This announcement comes nearly two weeks after Governor Doug Burgum had put winter sports on pause to the middle of December. He has since rescinded that announcement after strong criticism from people across North Dakota.
The 50 fans to be allowed at games is not counting players, coaches, officials, administrators or the media. It's assumed that each player will get a couple of vouchers to get to that number of 50. So, it's more than likely, that visiting fans will be extremely limited or not be allowed to attend games at all.
Governor Doug Burgum recently determined high school sports can practice beginning November 30th and games can begin on December 14th. However, I think we can all agree this is a very fluid situation, with a lot of moving parts. If numbers continue to sky rocket, and hospitals continue to be packed, all bets are off. In the meantime, parents of winter sports athletes can breath a sigh of relief, and can look forward to some sort of a season going forward. Let's hope it happens, especially for all the Senior athletes.
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