Grandparents at Games???

[ThePinkPanther]

Why are grandparents not allowed to come to games?  In a lot of cases, they are around these kids as much as the parents and have helped raise these kids.  I understand that TSSAA guidelines exclude them currently, but why?  I think they should change that until they go back to normal attendance.  There is plenty of room for them to come into these 1/2 empty gyms and maintain social distancing.  We are only talking about 20 or so extra fans.   Anyone have any thought?

[90warrior]

No good

Edited January 13, 2021 by 90warrior

[SportsWestTN]

18 hours ago, ThePinkPanther said:

Why are grandparents not allowed to come to games?  In a lot of cases, they are around these kids as much as the parents and have helped raise these kids.  I understand that TSSAA guidelines exclude them currently, but why?  I think they should change that until they go back to normal attendance.  There is plenty of room for them to come into these 1/2 empty gyms and maintain social distancing.  We are only talking about 20 or so extra fans.   Anyone have any thought?

I'd assume it is because they have to draw the line at some point. This was all spurred by the State after Gov. Lee's executive order. While many grandparents are close to the kids, someone could make a case that an aunt or uncle is also very close to said player. Then what? Cousins, great-grandparents, best friends. 

The thought is these kids are DEFINITELY going to be exposed to the people that live in their home, so there isn't as much of an additional risk having them attend games. 

There is plenty of room in the gyms for lots more people (while still maintaining social distancing). This was the case under the previous rule. However, what the governors office insinuated is those efforts weren't being followed close enough to reduce the spread. Can't say I disagree, having attended a number of games myself. Lots of different families sitting together; many removing their masks once they are in the gym. However, that issue doesn't change regardless of the number of people you allow in a gym. People naturally want to sit together with people they know and you can only do so much to enforce mask wearing.

In the end it is about optics. Numbers surged in TN and people were crying out about how sports were still allowed to go full-steam, with limited COVID restrictions. I don't think there is any data to support a correlation between sports and spread; if anything, the few things I have seen say there isn't a correlation at all. But, it's politics, and the governor isn't going to stick his neck out for high school sports anymore than he comfortably can. 

These restrictions are a lot more work for coaches and more inconvenient for fans. Personally, I think they should limit tickets to what we had before (1/3 capacity) or just have no fans at all and stream games online. I'd rather play in empty gyms and allow us to finish our seasons then not get to finish at all. Think that is how they should have handled things last March.

[mondo44]

Each player gets 4 tickets.  They decide who gets them.  

[pioneer42]

2 hours ago, mondo44 said:

Each player gets 4 tickets.  They decide who gets them.  

I think it is different every where on checking for family and what not. 

[SportsWestTN]

11 hours ago, pioneer42 said:

I think it is different every where on checking for family and what not. 

It is. And different schools are allowing different ticket amounts.

[pioneer42]

10 minutes ago, SportsWestTN said:

It is. And different schools are allowing different ticket amounts.

What most schools are doing I believe is giving each player a certain amount of tickets and you tell them at the gate who you are with. But most players immediate family takes the tickets so there is not many tickets even if you wanted a ticket. Some give out 2 per player and some give out 4 per player. Will be interesting what the protocol will be when state rolls around. Noticed yesterday TSSAA didn’t won’t no part of MTSU and no fans, which they shouldn’t. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by pioneer42

[JohnnyUtah]

On 1/12/2021 at 7:06 PM, ThePinkPanther said:

Why are grandparents not allowed to come to games?  In a lot of cases, they are around these kids as much as the parents and have helped raise these kids.  I understand that TSSAA guidelines exclude them currently, but why?  I think they should change that until they go back to normal attendance.  There is plenty of room for them to come into these 1/2 empty gyms and maintain social distancing.  We are only talking about 20 or so extra fans.   Anyone have any thought?

Cheerleaders/dance team and their parents should get approval before grandparents. 

[SportsWestTN]

4 hours ago, JohnnyUtah said:

Cheerleaders/dance team and their parents should get approval before grandparents. 

As much as I'd like to blame the TSSAA for that, you can place the blame of that on the governor's office. TSSAA didn't curtail Cheerleaders/Dance, they did. (Note: I have missed having cheerleaders at games. Their cheering helps drown out parent's yelling and awkward silence in the gym.)

It is hard to tell how much of this has all been driven down from the State. TSSAA might not have had really any say in it. The TSSAA also didn't put the restriction on number of tickets, instead the types of people that could attend. Individual schools are left to set rulings on specific numbers. 

At the end of the day, it is still a mess. I hope when the Executive Order expires, they loosen restrictions a bit. I don't think they were the cause of the COVID spike to start with, so I don't think going back will change much.

[ThePinkPanther]

On 1/15/2021 at 9:58 AM, JohnnyUtah said:

Cheerleaders/dance team and their parents should get approval before grandparents. 

I think it's pitiful that they didn't allow the cheerleaders/dance team to continue participating in basketball games.  Makes zero sense to me.   They have no contact with the other cheer teams for the other schools, unlike the players.  If I was a cheer parent, I would not be happy.  

[SportsWestTN]

On 1/16/2021 at 8:49 PM, ThePinkPanther said:

I think it's pitiful that they didn't allow the cheerleaders/dance team to continue participating in basketball games.  Makes zero sense to me.   They have no contact with the other cheer teams for the other schools, unlike the players.  If I was a cheer parent, I would not be happy.  

It was just to help pull numbers out of the gym. Cheerleaders/Dance are another 10-20 kids, plus all of their families. I don't agree with them doing it, but that's why they did it. Evidently, Childress said something at a meeting this week about trying to fight to get Cheer/Dance back into games. They are at the mercy of the governor's office, it seems. Hopefully when it expires they can negotiate getting them back in, if not more people.

[JohnnyUtah]

1 hour ago, SportsWestTN said:

It was just to help pull numbers out of the gym. Cheerleaders/Dance are another 10-20 kids, plus all of their families. I don't agree with them doing it, but that's why they did it. Evidently, Childress said something at a meeting this week about trying to fight to get Cheer/Dance back into games. They are at the mercy of the governor's office, it seems. Hopefully when it expires they can negotiate getting them back in, if not more people.

It's a cluster. Cheerleaders, dance and their families are held out. But if you have a JV/freshman game before the varsity games they can stay. Should of been like the old rec days, arrives 1 hour before your game time and leave after it's over.