NBA Covid response: Golden State Warriors submit proposal to open arena to fans

The 2020-21 NBA season is scheduled to start on December 22, but until now, the league has not released guidelines on arena safety to prevent a coronavirus outbreak.

At this point, only three things are set in stone for this upcoming NBA season; It will start on December 22nd, the regular season is 72-games long, and games will be played in regular arenas and not in a bubble environment.

Due to the league's lack of official guidelines, the Golden State Warriors organisation submitted a proposal to the City of San Francisco to allow 50% capacity for fans in their arena.

According to ESPN, Warriors owner Joe Lacob believes that by circumventing league "experts" and setting their own guidelines with their local government's approval, they can set a standard for all sports franchises to follow.

The Warriors have set aside 30 million dollars (22.750 million GBP) to test every fan and use a higher accuracy test for every Warriors organisation member during home games.

Warriors owner Lacob holds a master's degree in public health from UCLA and built his fortune as a venture capitalist in biotechnology.

"I not only want to get this done and show the world how we can do it now, I'm willing to spend the money to do it."

Lacob claims that they have to solve the issue now. If the coronavirus problem continues for several more years, he expects the league to close down.

"You cannot sustain this league with no fans. You can do it for a year. We'll all get by for a year. But suppose we're in this situation next year. Now we're talking some serious, serious financial damage to a lot of people."

Lacob claims that the Warriors have been working on this problem since the games were suspended on March 11. The solution revolves around the rapid PCR test that's 99% accurate in detecting coronavirus infection. The test can produce results within 15 minutes and can be used to detect people infected with COVID-19.

The Golden State Warriors had not played a game since March 10, when they lost to the Los Angeles Clippers 131-107. They did not qualify for the NBA restart in Orlando and spent the long off-season waiting for their injured superstars to recover. The Warriors finished with the worst record in the league last season after five straight NBA finals. They plan to mount a comeback next season.