The Los Rios Community College District announced on Aug. 21 that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans would not be allowed at any indoor sporting events during the fall season. This decision did not affect outdoor sports, however, as fans are still allowed to attend those events.

According to the LRCCD announcement, fans are not allowed to attend indoor sporting events until the district can establish a process to make sure that all fans are healthy and/or vaccinated.

The women’s volleyball team is currently playing its season indoors, while the men’s basketball season will launch on Nov. 5.

Mark Giorgi, head coach of the men’s basketball team, says he doesn’t think the ban on indoor attendance won’t have much of an impact.

“Most [community colleges] don’t get a lot of fans [at games] when we’re talking about typical fans,” Giorgi said. “More of the effect will be not having families there.”

Even though fans can’t attend these games in person, some of them can be watched via livestream. 

Fans can watch livestreams by going to the sports schedule, selecting the date of the event and clicking the link titled ‘video’. Only some of the games will be livestreamed. 

On the opposite side of the spectrum outdoor sports, such as football\are playing games with spectators. 

Football has had three home games so far and attendance has been open to all fans. 

The first game of the football season was packed with masked spectators showing support for the team. 

Jon Osterhout, ARC’s head football coach, says it feels good to have fans in attendance. 

“It was good to see fans out there. It was great to have fans back in the stands for our players. It felt good having family in the stands, and spectators are usually great since they get involved in the games,” Osterhout said. 

More information about potential changes to attendance rules and regulations can be found on the ARC website.