In March of 2020 Major League Soccer suspended the season due to COVID-19. That included the Orlando City Lions. Five months later Orlando City Soccer re-opened to fans. At that time, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said only 20% of the stadium’s capacity would be permitted and those fans must be season ticket holders. He estimated about 6,000 fans could attend. In October of 2020 a match was canceled because two staff were infected with COVID-19.
Orlando City Soccer Re-opened on April 16, 2021. All City Soccer Staff are supposed to have been vaccinated. On May day of 2021 the Lions played Cincinnati at home. Pam Schwartz had been offered a chance to watch the game from box seats so we decided to go. The mask mandates had just been changed by the CDC allowing people who have been vaccinated to not wear masks when outside. The CDC warned that masks should continue to be worn at any crowded stadium setting.
We were able to park right next to the stadium and security was surprisingly lax. There was a temperature check and hand sanitizer available at the entrance. I just had to raise my hands above my head and walk right through a metal detector. I usually have to empty out my pockets which were full of art supplies. My pencils are often mistaken for weapons, but not on this day.
In NYC fans can get a vaccine as they enter Yankee Stadium or Mets Stadium. On top of that the ticket is free if the fan gets a vaccine. A growing number of venues are asking visitors to prove they’ve gotten their shots by displaying what’s called a “vaccine passport.” Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, and Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, are among a growing list of sports spaces that now require digital vaccine verification’s. Those teams and others have been using an app called Health Pass from tech company Clear for COVID-19 screening.
The NBA has employed COVID sniffing dogs. Researches have found that the dogs are amazingly accurate at detecting people who are infected. Anyway other than a temperature check there was no assurance that infected individuals were not entering the Orlando City Soccer game. I had my vaccination card in my wallet but it was not needed.
Pam and I have both had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine so we are both about 95% protected. We were assured that everyone in the box where we watched the game were also fully vaccinated, but how can you really be sure that is true? The box seats offered some separation from the crowd. Fireworks went off during the Star Spangled Banner and I could smell the gun powder through my mask which was a stark reminder that everyone in the stadium was swapping air. The bleachers to my left were full of the more fervent fans. They stomped on the bleachers. A drum corp and flag waving fans shouted through out the match. I noticed many fans felt they needed to remove their mask in order to shout their anger during the game. That kind of defeats the point of the mask. In those stands there was no social distancing. Shirtless men danced up and down the aisles belly to belly and one guy flung his beer all over the crowd around him. You would think there never had been a pandemic in Orlando. The COVID-19 numbers slowly continue to drop in America but the fervent COVID denial-ism that I saw in the stands will most certainly help circulate more infections in Orlando.
India is experiencing a devastating Covid-19 second wave killing thousands people every day. Despite the carnage, the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament is playing on less than a mile from hospitals filled to capacity. “I’m advised that the Indian government is of the view that playing the IPL while the population is in lock down provides a few hours of joy and respite each day at an otherwise difficult time for the country,” Pat Cummins wrote in a statement on Twitter.
It felt good to be out and about sketching in public again, and I hope that the box seats, vaccine and mask were enough to keep me safe. I had a beer, but never drank it since I didn’t want to take my mask off. I thought getting back out to sketch on location would involve incremental steps, but this was like jumping into the deep end of the pool. 11,503 fans filled the stadium which can hold 25,500 fans. Is that too crowded? Only time will tell.
Decrease in ER Visits for influenza-like illness: NO
Decrease in new cases by date: NO
Decrease in percent positivity OR positivity below 10%**: NO
