Coronavirus US Update: LA May Ban Concerts, Sporting Events Until 2021

Fans of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team will have to go to their local Walmart to buy the famous “Dodger Dog” hot dogs and eat them at home because they likely won’t be able to go to Chavez Ravine anytime soon to watch a baseball game or enjoy a concert. The threat of the coronavirus could cause Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to cancel large gatherings like concerts and sporting events until 2021.

In a CNN interview Wednesday, the mayor said, “It’s difficult to imagine us getting together in the thousands any time soon. So, I think we should be prepared for that this year.”

On Monday, a meeting of high-ranking officials from the mayor’s office was held where the measure was discussed. Garcetti told the media, “I think we all have never wanted science to work so quickly, but until there’s either a vaccine, some sort of pharmaceutical intervention or herd immunity, the science is the science. Public health officials have been very clear: We’ve got many miles to walk before we’re going to be back in those environments.”

Another email by the mayor, according to the Los Angeles Times, mentioned a 6 to 10-month timeline for other essential and small businesses to be phased back in. The mayor later said there was no “hard timeline” as to when that might happen.

He added, “All I know is while we don’t know the date when those things will return, I know that they will be sooner the more that we take these actions.”

Also, on Wednesday, LA County Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer commented on any games played this year at Chavez Ravine by the Dodger baseball team.

She said, “Dodgers games I would imagine that, at whatever point that becomes a reality, they’re spectator free. We can’t really have large numbers of people coming together because we don’t have enough immunity yet.”

“More retail shops will be open at some point in the near future but there will be limits on how many people can be in a store at any given time. Our arts and cultural sites will reopen at some point in the future, but events may be spectator free.”

The Dodger franchise dates to 1883 in Brooklyn, New York. It moved to LA from Brooklyn in 1958, breaking the hearts of fans who referred to the team as “Dem Bum” in a heavy Brooklyn accent. Historically, the team was credited with breaking the “color barrier” in 1947 when Jackie Robinson took the field on April 15 of that year. The storied franchise is emblematic to LA with five of the team’s six World Series titles in LA and in 2019 an average of 49,065 fans was in attendance for each game at Chavez Ravine.

Playing to an empty park may seem normal to some small-market teams, but was almost unimaginable for Dodger fans. The Dodger Dogs cost $6.75 each in 2019 at the ballpark so at least fans of the bun encased treat will save a bit of cash by staying home. Most people, however, will agree that it just won’t be the same.