New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that major sports teams in New York can plan to reopen without fans.
“I also have been encouraging major sports teams to plan reopenings without fans, but the games could be televised,” Cuomo said in his daily press briefing. “New York State will help those major sports franchises to do just that. Hockey, basketball, baseball, football. Whoever can reopen, we’re a ready, willing and able partner.”
At the moment, New York City, which houses the majority of New York’s major sports teams, has yet to reach Phase 1 of New York State’s reopening plan.
A region of New York must meet seven metrics before entering Phase 1. The number of hospitalizations, deaths and new hospitalizations are three of the factors, while the capacity of hospital beds, ICU beds, diagnostic testing and contact tracing are the other four factors in the reopening process.
So far five of New York’s 10 regions have entered Phase 1. Western New York will become the sixth region to begin reopening on Tuesday and the Capital Region is on pace to meet the seven metrics later in the week.
New York City has only met three of the seven metrics (hospitalizations, deaths and testing) as of Monday. However, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio expects to have contact tracing plans in place by early June. The Mayor hopes to meet the other remaining criteria by then as well to potentially reach Phase 1 in early June.
Although the New York Mets and New York Yankees have been given the green light to plan their reopenings, they also await a resolution for MLB’s plan to return.
