Mark Benson's announcement about "Fans in the Stands"

[cwdickens]

Like many of you, I received an e-mail letter from Mark Benson concerning "Fans in the Stands"... to those who did not receive the e-mail the body of the message is below:

 

I hope this email finds you safe and healthy.  Thank you for supporting Great Dane Athletics as a basketball season ticket holder last season.  While this year has obviously presented many challenges and uncertainty, we are excited for our basketball programs to compete for America East Championships this season. 

 

Due to the current New York State guidelines for live indoor events, we are not allowed to have fans in the stands at SEFCU Arena.  We will continue to monitor the situation and if these guidelines change, we will be sure to provide a plan for fans to watch the Great Danes in person.  Until then, you will be able to watch every men’s and women’s America East game, home and away, live on ESPN+/3, and listen to every men’s game live on ESPN Radio’s 104.5 “The Team”.

 

You can find our schedules here:

 

Men’s Basketball Schedule: Click Here

Women’s Basketball Schedule: Click Here

 

Information to subscribe to ESPN3/+ : Click Here

 

Thank you again for your continued support.  If you have any questions or recommendations, please don’t hesitate to reply to this email.

________________

After 50 years of watching Great Danes basketball in-person; the prospect have not seeing this team in the SEFCU Arena is hard to imagine.  I can only hope things improve down the road

[Eli]

Happy to see it will be streamed on ESPN and not the crap AE TV. 

I wish they would have just had season ticket holders spaced out and no one else (how many of us are there?) but people wouldn't have their normal seats. Then you have our genius of a governor...but anyway...better than nothing. 

[UA1882]

What I find even more interesting is that our non conference games have not been cancelled yet.  We are still in a pause and they are coming up very soon . I expect them to be cancelled but only time will tell. 

[cwdickens]

3 hours ago, UA1882 said:

What I find even more interesting is that our non conference games have not been cancelled yet.  We are still in a pause and they are coming up very soon . I expect them to be cancelled but only time will tell. 

Other D1 schools (Syracuse, Siena) are in similar position.

[cwdickens]

3 hours ago, Eli said:

Happy to see it will be streamed on ESPN and not the crap AE TV. 

I wish they would have just had season ticket holders spaced out and no one else (how many of us are there?) but people wouldn't have their normal seats. Then you have our genius of a governor...but anyway...better than nothing. 

Yes, ESPN is a good thing

[cwdickens]

I have spoken to 4 other season ticket holders who felt that under no circumstances that they would attend a game on campus until 2021...common reason to protect the health of other family members...follow by themselves...yes this is hard...I can carry on without the on-campus experience under the current situation around the Capital District...I could not live with myself if I bought Covid-19 from attending a game and infected my spouse...

[Eli]

My spouse works retail. If it wasn't for our Governor and the decision was left up to the school, I'd have liked to been given the option to attend in person. If anything, my spouse will bring it home to me.

[cwdickens]

13 hours ago, cwdickens said:

Other D1 schools (Syracuse, Siena) are in similar position.

You can now add Siena Saints Women's program to the list...of schools suspending activities due to a member of the team and/or staff testing positive....anyone looking for 25 lb turkey....a coach is no longer hosting her team on Thanksgiving....

[dslyank]

17 hours ago, Eli said:

Happy to see it will be streamed on ESPN and not the crap AE TV. 

I wish they would have just had season ticket holders spaced out and no one else (how many of us are there?) but people wouldn't have their normal seats

If they play at all; and I am still skeptical, I WOULD absolutely attend games. As long as seating is limited, mask are required, and all social distance rules followed. 25% capacity seems to be working in restaurants and stores etc; why not in a "huge" arena. Even if SEFCU can't be defined as huge, it certainly is big enough to space out the season ticket holders and perhaps even a few more. Put in some MERV 13 filters and FREE SEFCU FREE SEFCU FREE SEFCU.

 No storming the court, you Notre Dame aholes! 

[KingDane]

UAlbany men's basketball has canceled non-conference games against Marist and in the Hall Of Fame Tip-Off Tournament.

[cwdickens]

1 hour ago, KingDane said:

UAlbany men's basketball has canceled non-conference games against Marist and in the Hall Of Fame Tip-Off Tournament.

No surprise .... I have heard that Syracuse and Siena Men's first game, possible first two or three are in doubt.

The UAlbany announcement link is below:

https://ualbanysports.com/news/2020/11/19/mens-basketball-announces-2020-21-schedule-revisions.aspx

[dslyank]

The beginning of the end??  Not looking good for A season.

[godanesgo99]

Definitely not looking good. Even if the season does happen for conference games only, I am thinking it will look ugly with so much less practices than some of the other teams. Will we have enough talent to overcome the more preparation the other teams have.

Back to the original point of this post - I would attend games today if we were allowed. The stands have been mostly socially distanced for the last few years anyway. I would wear a mask to help keep others safe, but wouldn't care if the people sitting next to me didn't. I'm still a fan of working towards herd immunity. I would hope that people that are part of a vulnerable population would stay away. We do have some aging fans, but we are still no where close to the blue headed LCC faithful. 

[Dane Pound]

Not optimistic about seeing many games and never really was. In the spring of 2020, some friends who work at a health care provider told me their headquarters would be remote until summer of 2021. That's when life would possibly begin to resemble "normal." If Covid were a plumbing issue, I would listen to plumbers. If Covid were a legal issue, I would listen to lawyers. But it's a health issue so I've listened to people in the health care industry. 

I also had a client who is younger than me (earlier 40s with no previous health conditions) get Covid. They were in a coma for a month, hospitalized for three months and then went through rehab for months to walk again. I suppose they're part of the "99% recovery" rate that people often talk about but I'll be damned if I want to bring that into my house.