WOAY – WVU Athletics announced Tuesday that all home basketball games – men’s and women’s – during the month of December will be closed to the general public, due to a recent spike in positive COVID-19 cases.
Previously, the WVU Coliseum would be open to 20% capacity, but now only essential game operations personnel and families of the players and basketball staffs will be able to attend. Fan attendance policies for home games in January, February, and March are still being decided.
“To say that we are disappointed is quite an understatement, but the decision not to allow spectators in December is the correct one at this time for the safety of our fans, staff and student-athletes,” Director of Athletics Shane Lyons said in a statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic keeps presenting many challenges, but like I have said in the past, we need to continue being aggressive in taking appropriate safety precautions of wearing masks and getting tested so that we can end this pandemic.”
“We have two exciting basketball teams and rest assured that our goal is to have fans in the Coliseum to watch our men’s and women’s teams play. Difficult decisions like this one have to be made for the safety of all involved, and I can’t wait for the day when we can welcome fans back to the Coliseum to see all the great upgrades that were made over the summer to the building for its 50thanniversary.”
WVU women’s basketball is scheduled to host North Alabama on Thursday, December 3 and Tennessee on Sunday, December 6; the latter is part of the Big 12/SEC Women’s Challenge. The Mountaineer men don’t have a scheduled home game until December 9 against Robert Morris.
