SEC locks fans out of rest of tournament. Some UK fans say it’s overreaction.
Kentucky fan reaction in anticipation of the Southeastern Conference following the NCAA’s lead and prohibiting fans from attending its tournament was not positive.
“I’m not going to be very happy with them,” Shelly Coleman said Wednesday when asked about the SEC keeping fans outside Bridgestone Arena. “It will upset me if they do that.”
Coleman, who is from Brooksville, Ky., said her traveling expenses for the SEC Tournament totaled $2,500.
“They’ve already opened it up for two games,” she said of Wednesday’s first-round doubleheader. “Why not keep it open? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Later Wednesday, Commissioner Greg Sankey announced that the league would limit attendance the rest of the tournament to essential staff, a limited number of family members and media.
“We regret the inconvenience and disappointment this decision has caused our fans,” Sankey said in a statement, “especially those who have already traveled to Nashville for the tournament.”
The restrictions on fan attendance will include on-campus games in all sports beginning Thursday and running through March 30, the SEC said.
As for events after March 30, Sankey said the league would continue to monitor and then decide if fans can attend. That would include spring football games, he said. Kentucky’s spring game is scheduled for April 11.
The World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus a pandemic contributed to the decision to limit fan attendance at the SEC Tournament, Sankey said.
There will be automatic refunds for tickets bought from the SEC Office or a league school or a verified purchaser on the SEC Ticket Exchange powered by Ticketmaster, Sankey said.
The league could not make refunds for tickets bought from a secondary market, he said.
Georgia Coach Tom Crean said of the limit on fan attendance, “That’s the new normal.” The SEC was one of many conferences that have announced a limit on fan attendance.
Scott Nesmith, who lives in Florence, called the NCAA’s action an overreaction.
“How many people get the flu every year,” he said. “I just think it’s an overreaction to the unknown. And people are scared of the unknown.”
Sherry Watts of Oldham County fell into the overreaction camp. She said her job as a purchasing manager for a company that makes speakers requires her to make trips to China about every two years. She said she had been familiar with the coronavirus before it began making headlines in this country.
“I’m not worried,” she said. “I know all about this.”
If the SEC kept fans from attending its tournament after Wednesday, “I’d be devastated,” Watts said before Sankey’s anouncement.
UK Coach John Calipari used Twitter to express regret that fans will not be able to attend future games.
“Our team is saddened you can’t be in the building with us,” he tweeted.
Calipari also tweeted that the UK program had been in “constant contact” with SEC officials and would continue to monitor the situation.
Some UK fans accepted, if not welcomed, the limit on attendance.
Will Snell of Paris said he’d have a mixed reaction if the SEC prohibited fans from attending its tournament.
“I’d be disappointed,” he said. “But, it wouldn’t be unexpected. We have to keep everything in perspective. There’s bigger things than basketball.”
Snell said he works as a professor at UK.
“Obviously, you’ve got to take health and safety into account,” he said.
Nesmith said the NCAA’s action might put a damper on one of this season’s potential Cinderella stories.
“How would you like to be Dayton?” he asked. “They’re having a great season, and now they’ll be playing in the NCAA. Nobody’s going to see it.
“That’s what this (NCAA) tournament is all about.”
Coleman suggested the NCAA ban was illogical.
“Where do you think all the fans are going to go?” she asked. “They’re going to go to bars. We’re going to be more in each other’s faces at bars.”
Kenney said she was attending the SEC Tournament for the 19th straight year.
“I had been planning to go to the Final Four,” she said. “I’m glad it wasn’t this year that I had made those plans.”
SEC Tournament
When: Wednesday through Sunday
Where: Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
Kentucky’s first game: 1 p.m. EDT Friday vs. Tennessee or Alabama (ESPN)
SEC Tournament schedule
Wednesday
Georgia 81, Ole Miss 63
Vanderbilt vs. Arkansas (n)
Thursday
1 p.m.: Alabama vs. Tennessee (SEC)
3 p.m.: Florida vs. Georgia (SEC)
7 p.m.: Missouri vs. Texas A&M (SEC)
9 p.m.: South Carolina vs. Vanderbilt-Arkansas winner (SEC)
Friday
1 p.m.: Kentucky vs. Tennessee-Alabama winner (SEC)
3 p.m.: Mississippi State vs. Georgia or Florida (SEC)
7 p.m.: Auburn vs. Missouri-Texas A&M winner (SEC)
9 p.m.: LSU vs. South Carolina, Vanderbilt or Arkansas (SEC)
Saturday
1 and 3 p.m.: Semifinals (ESPN)
Sunday
1 p.m.: Championship game (ESPN)
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 9:04 PM.
