Last week, the SPHL's Huntsville Havoc, who have enjoyed the leading the league in attendance for the past five season, announced that they will open the doors to full capacity on October 15 once the season starts. In their announcement to the world, there was no mention of vaccinated fans, fans who have tested negative for COVID, or anything along those lines in terms of who will be allowed through the turnstiles. One has to wonder if Huntsville Haoc games will be full-on superspreader events in Alabama for season.
Huntsville, which resides in Madison County at the northern part of the state, is currently in a red zone state where the current rate of infection among 100,000 people sits at 325.8 and the total positivity rate comes in at 18.3%. And while that's less than Alabama as a whole when it comes to their overall numbers, those numbers are still woefully terrible when talking about allowing people into the Von Braun Center for hockey games. What makes this worse, though, is that Madison County is the highest vaccinated county in Alabama at 36%, meaning that if fans come from other counties they are likely unvaccinated.
I've scoured every news site and blog concerning the Havoc to see if the announcement just conveniently omitted the parts about being vaccinated or showing a negative test, but it would appear that was never a concern as none of those sites mention it once. In a state where there are over 250 new cases per day, the chances of catching COVID-19 at a Havoc game seem rather high, especially for the unvaccinated in the crowd.
With Huntsville averaging just under 4200 fans per game at the Von Braun Center and with a positivity rate of 18.3%, that would mean that, in theory, that some 770 people walking through the entrance gates could be carriers of the disease. With Alabama having 47% of its population with one shot and just 36% of the population with two shots and fully vaccinated, the chances, as stated above, are better than good that COVID-19 will infect fans at the Von Braun Center.
I struggle with this approach of allowing any and all fans back inside the VBC because of how close quarters everything seems to be in minor-pro rinks. Whether it's sitting close together in the stands or squeezing by people on the concourse, there are always space limitations inside rinks. This holds true for the Von Braun Center as well, so allowing unvaccinated fans into the game in a state where vaccinated people are in the minority seems truly dumb.
However, if that's what the Havoc are choosing to do to continue this meaningless run of "highest attendance in the SPHL" that not one person cares about outside of the Huntsville front office, that's their battle to wage with the virus. As we know, it cares not for attendance records or sporting events or your thoughts on vaccinations. All COVID-19 wants is a warm body where it can settle down, reproduce a bazillion times, and send those viruses out to other hosts. And if it kills a few people along the way? That's just collateral damage to an uncaring virus.
If the Havoc were smart, they'd be holding vaccination drop-ins where people can get two free tickets to games if they come to the Von Braun Center to get a vaccination. This would do nothing to disrupt their precious attendance records, but it may also prevent a dip in attendance if people start getting sick from attending games. Vaccinations for tickets would be a heckuva promotion, and it would prompt Havoc fans to get their tickets while remaining safe from serious virulent effects for the entire season.
Call me crazy, but that just seems like a win-win to me. Of course, I'm not the one desperate for a sixth-straight attendance mark by allowing anyone through the door. And in making this decision and not qualifying it by saying that people need to be vaccinated to attend, it appears that the Havoc, whether they wanted to or not, have given season tickets to COVID-19 as well.
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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