The Latest: Blues to allow up to 1,400 fans at home games
The Latest on the effects of the coronavirus outbreak on sports around the world:
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The St. Louis Blues are the latest NHL team to allow a limited number of fans into home games.
The team says up to 1,400 people will be allowed at its next set of home games Feb. 2-7.
As of now, the Blues would be the fifth NHL team to allow fans into their arena, joining the Florida Panthers, Arizona Coyotes, Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators. Nashville allowed only a couple of hundred fans for its game Tuesday night, the first with them in the building.
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said before the season began that Pittsburgh and Columbus were among the other teams making plans. The defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning originally planned to host 3,800 fans a game but postponed that because of a spike in COVID-19 cases in the area.
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UConn says it has postponed its next two men’s basketball games, including Thursday’s scheduled contest with No. 3 Villanova after learning that an official who worked its Tuesday night win over Butler has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Huskies have been placed in a daily testing protocol and a modified quarantine that also will prevent them from traveling to New York for a game at St. John’s on Sunday. The school says it won’t play another game until it is deemed safe by medical professionals and other postponements are possible.
These will be the ninth and 10th games on the Huskies schedule that have been either postponed or cancelled because of concerns related to the novel coronavirus.
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The University at Albany men’s basketball team has been placed on a temporary pause following a presumptive positive COVID-19 test within the team’s Tier 1 personnel.
The length of the pause will be determined pending additional test results and contact tracing.
The move comes after its league, the America East Conference, announced plans to revise its schedules every two weeks to deal with COVID-19 issues.
Last week, members of the University of Vermont’s women’s basketball team decided not to continue their season and opted out, disrupting the league schedule.
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