Philly Officials “Recommend” No More Than 5000 in a Crowd Due to Coronavirus
The Flyers are playing their best hockey in years, the Sixers are about to go on era-defining playoff run, and the Phillies are about to kick off a new era of baseball.
And it’s possible that none of those events will feature more than 5,000 in attendance.
Amid maybe the scariest outbreak the country has faced in decades, the coronavirus has spread into Philadelphia and claimed the city’s first victim. A doctor in King of Prussia tested positive for the disease and the city is scrambling to fight it from spreading.
A cardiologist working for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia has tested positive for #coronavirus. See live updates about the virus in the Philly-area here:https://t.co/ojf3BSwLvP
— The Philadelphia Inquirer (@PhillyInquirer) March 9, 2020
The Philadelphia Health Department has recommended that all mass gatherings in the city be limited to just 5000 people. For a city that has several events of public gatherings on a weekly basis, the look of the place will look drastically different over the next several weeks, maybe months. City Hall will have plenty of tough decisions to make over special Philly traditions such as the St. Patrick’s Day parade which holds an average of 20,000 people in attendance.
And the sporting events, of course, goes without saying. The breaking of the virus could not come at a worse time for a city that thrives when their professional teams are good. The Flyers, a team that struggles to get it’s deserved attention when they’re decent, are on a hot streak to the playoffs. The fantasies of the Orange-and-Black ending their 45-year championship drought are not too far behind. How would all that look with only 5,000 spectators at the Wells Fargo center?
The Sixers too will have a lot of hype going into the playoffs despite a roller-coaster regular season. The only time the Wells Fargo center had been more electric than the Sixers playoff runs of the past two seasons were for the 2001 Sixers and the 2010 Flyers. In a postseason that could make-or-break controversial The Process Era be determined with that small a crowd. Though according to Spike Eskin that may actually be fitting.
https://twitter.com/SpikeEskin/status/1237504401650024448?s=20
And finally there’s the Phillies. While Citizens Bank Park attendance isn’t that high during mid-season when the Phillies aren’t good, in the opening days it’s always packed. Especially now with a World Series winning manager beginning his tenure as Phils skipper. The usually hyped opening week at home could be as dead as a mid-July game during the mid-2010s.
All of that because of a virus that’s spreading like something out of a movie. Is this disease being taken as serious as it should be? Or has it been an overblown news story compared to the likes of Ebola and Swine Flu? Nevertheless the disease is being taken very seriously, to the point of changing the look the city and country, but is probably for the best.