The consensus among NBA owners on a Board of Governors call via teleconference with the league office Wednesday was either continue season with no fans in arenas — or have NBA take a hiatus for a period of time, sources told ESPN.
The greater consensus among the teams is continuing to play games without fans in arenas. The league is expected to move toward a resolution on Thursday, sources said.
The NBA has been exploring ways to allow them to continue playing and televising games during the coronavirus crisis, even with it increasingly likely that the league will do so in empty arenas, sources said earlier Wednesday. The NBA is bracing for losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars across the sport, sources said.
As reported on Tuesday, league sources told ESPN that one scenario introduced into the league’s conversation about enacting temporary measures in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak involves moving some games to NBA cities that have yet to suffer outbreaks.
If the virus clusters and forces a team out of its city and arena for a period of time, there has been discussion about moving games to the away opponent’s arena if that city hasn’t suffered an outbreak — or even moving games to neutral cities and sites, league sources told ESPN.
Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors announced earlier Wednesday that they will play Thursday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets with no fans inside the Chase Center in response to coronavirus concerns.
The team’s decision followed an order from the San Francisco Health Office prohibiting events where 1,000 or more people assemble. The Warriors tweeted that other events at the Chase Center through March 21 — consisting of three concerts and a G League game — would be canceled or postponed.
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