The Jazz announced a plan to have a limited number of fans in Vivint Arena when the new season starts next month.
There will be a reduced seating capacity of 1,500 people in the lower bowl of the building, along with limited seating at the suite level. All seating will be socially distanced, and safety measures have been adopted throughout the arena in conjunction with the Utah Department of Health. No fans will be permitted at preseason games.
“The Jazz believe this is a responsible way to start the season from a public health and safety standpoint. Our intent is to increase the number of fans as the season unfolds in compliance with state guidelines,” said team president Jim Olson. “We want to reassure our guests that we are taking the utmost precautions to have a safe and enjoyable experience as they return. We are optimistic for the future and continue to closely monitor the public health situation with State of Utah, Salt Lake County, and Salt Lake City officials as well as the NBA.”
The team is partnering with Alsco to provide products that limit the spread of COVID-19, such as hand sanitizer dispensers, masks, gloves and hospital-grade cleaning solutions. Other safety measures will be adopted, such as mandatory face coverings, mobile entry and screening procedures at all entrances, plexiglass barriers and signs to remind fans of the need for social distancing.
Those whacky Mormons…
Well I hope it works. You gotta start small. A closed arena is most problematic.
But will they EVER explain why or justify why an NBA team that is located in UTAH still has the team name “JAZZ”?
The only people in the entire state of UTAH that even know what “JAZZ” is, are the players on the team.
Well, if you did a little research you’d know. They tried to change the name when they moved to Utah from New Orleans (hence “Jazz”) in 1979 but nothing really stuck so they kept it. I was 16 at the time and they had a big contest to change the name and the winner would get season tickets for life. Nothing stuck. No tickets.
What were they going to call themselves, the Utah Mormon Tabernacle Choir? I personally think they missed what would have been a bad-ass name – the Utah Raptors as there is one of the countries biggest dinosaur fossil quarries located within the state. Toronto nabbed it years later to my chagrin.
So they kept the name, much as the LA Lakers did after their move from Minneapolis. Do you know of many lakes in LA? Nope, same thing, they moved from Minneapolis (their state motto is “land of 10,000 lakes”), and they kept the name the same because nothing sounded better.
This happens over and over again, it’s called “branding”. It wasn’t as popular a term back then as it is now but when someone associates with a name or an idea there is a tendency to keep the name, or the brand so people can continue to follow that person or team (think famous women who keep their maiden names when getting married (i.e. Diana Ross, Chrissy Tiegan, Jane Fonda among dozens more)).
It really doesn’t happen that often in sports (i.e. Balt/Indy Colts and NY/SF Giants come to mind) but in those two cases there really isn’t much of an oddity to the name (I wouldn’t associate colts with Balt or Indy and can’t think of any giants in either NY or SF).
So those are just names. Conversely, I think there are certain teams today that would automatically need to change their team name if they left town. The Miami Marlins becoming the Oklahoma City Marlins is purely ridiculous but maybe just as ridiculous as Utah or LA back then one could argue.
In the case of Utah and LA, there is that level of disassociation but the teams have become so established that rarely does anyone question the origin and then someone like me or Wikipedia steps in and lets them know. You’re welcome.
Watched the news last night. Vaccines are on the way pretty soon. NBA teams need revenue and people can’t just stop living. Every team is going to need fans at some point this season. Imagine an NBA Finals where say the Lakers or Clippers have homecourt, but no fans, yet their NBA Finals opponent say Miami or Philly has fans
I don’t know, man…imagining stuff sounds really hard…
“People can’t just stop living.” Well except when they die from a highly transferable virus during a pandemic.