RI Reopening: Summer Baseball On Deck, But Fall Football In Doubt

PROVIDENCE, RI — As Gov. Gina Raimondo opened the door for summer competition in baseball, softball and other "no-contact and low-contact" sports during her Wednesday news conference, she cast doubt on whether sports such as football and soccer will be allowed in the state through the fall school season.

Raimondo announced that those no-contact and low-contact sports will be able to play games, with spectators, starting with the expected transition to phase 3 of the state's reopening on Monday. She said contact sports will not be allowed until at least August, if not much later, due to coronavirus concerns.

"Close and contact sports are really the most dangerous thing you can do," she said. "You can't really wear a mask if you're exercising, breathing heavy. And you're near people. So that's probably going to be one of the last things to come back."

She said that phase 3 is expected last through July, and perhaps into August, depending on how state coronavirus data responds to reopening, and that while she intends to resume in-classroom learning on Aug. 31, certain celebrated high school sports may be much more problematic.

"It's a risk," she said. "It's a difficult call. I could easily say, I think, probably not."

The news is tentatively good for summer baseball, golf, softball and tennis leagues hoping to play a summer season.

"We are going to be allowing no-contact and low-contact sports games to be played between stable groups with no limit on the overall group size," she said of the guidelines that will apply to both adult and youth sports in phase 3, and are an easing of phase 2 restrictions that limited sports to no-contact practices and drills.

"Stable groups" refer to having the same roster of players and coaches together for the entire season to keep the number of interactions as limited as possible.

"That matters a lot because if someone gets sick we want to be able to contain it to that stable group," she said.

Games will be allowed against both in-state and out-of-state opponents as long as the out-of-state opponent is not coming from an area with a travel restriction or recent coronavirus outbreak.

Players will be asked to wear masks and socially distance at least 6 feet away from each other where possible — with Raimondo acknowledging that may not always be practical depending on the sport and the age of the participants.

Spectators will be allowed with a limit of two spectators per participant "in an effort to keep the crowds down." Spectators must wear face masks.

"You can do your football drills and such, but we don't want you playing games, close contact," she said, also referencing basketball and soccer in that class of "contact sports."

She said the full guidelines will be posted on www.reopeningri.com on Monday and that these rules apply to phase 3 only, for as long as it lasts. The category "phase 4" has been removed from the website and replaced with "Eventually we'll land."

"Probably the month of July, and maybe some of August," she said of phase 3's expected duration. "It does not pertain to the 2020-21 school year for interscholastic sports. We'll be back out later in the summer with the new rules with how students can play once school starts up again."

As with many of the aspects of phase 3, she said organizers and participants will be relied on to police themselves when it comes to following coronavirus restrictions.

"I am asking you to be responsible," she said, "be creative and use your very best judgement to keep each other safe."