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California outlines path for sports fans and Disneyland — in concept

OAKLAND, Calif. — California officials on Tuesday dangled the possibility of allowing visitors to professional sporting events and theme parks, but the realities of infection rates and county policies quickly dashed hopes that major venues would open anytime soon.

The state until now has blocked visitors from professional games and theme parks out of concern for coronavirus spread. With infection rates declining after a summer surge, California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly issued rules Tuesday that provide a path for those venues to open.

The new guidelines for professional sports allow outdoor stadiums and racetracks to reopen in counties that have lowered infections enough to reach the orange tier, the second-least restrictive. Teams there can play with up to 20 percent capacity, with additional restrictions such as ticket purchasers having to live within a 120-mile radius and a face-covering mandate.

California this year allowed professional sports to occur without fans in California, which included hosting part of the Major League Baseball playoff bubble this month in Southern California.

Tuesday's spectator announcement initially raised the spirits of San Francisco 49ers fans because Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara County qualifies for reopening under the state rules. But Santa Clara County immediately issued a statement after Ghaly's announcement saying that fans at professional sporting events "will not be allowed anytime soon."

Santa Clara County was the first in the nation to shut pro sports events in March as community spread began, a move that was partially responsible for forcing the NBA and other leagues to reconsider their policies.

County Executive Jeff Smith, who is also a physician, followed up with harsh words for state officials.

“It makes no sense whatsoever to have audiences at stadiums, particularly when there is a model to do it without audiences in a much a safer way,” Smith said at a press briefing Tuesday afternoon. “Putting an audience in a stadium in large groups is just asking for trouble. It’s like a petri dish.”

The state also released rules for reopening theme parks that allows smaller venues to reopen in counties with lower rates of infection — but brings no immediate relief to Disneyland or other major Southern California attractions.

The large attractions won't be allowed to open until their counties are in the yellow tier — which no Southern California county has reached — and those parks will have to limit capacity with 25 percent capacity with reservations. Disneyland is in Orange County, which is still in the red tier, two levels away from where it would have to land for the theme park to reopen.

Ghaly said the distinction between the large and small parks came down to the characteristics of the venue and the reach of their draw. He said smaller amusement parks "often don't draw from broader communities, and they are almost exclusively outdoors" while the large theme parks can attract an international audience.

Ken Potrock, president of Disneyland Resort, was dissatisfied with the latest announcement. The resort took the unusual step of issuing a statement with quotes from Orange County Public Health Officer Clayton Chau, who said the county would likely not reach the yellow tier until next summer and that it could depend on a vaccine.

Disney chief Bob Iger recently resigned from Gov. Gavin Newsom's reopening task force out of frustration with the governor's theme park prohibition. The company's Disney World Resort is open in Florida.

"We have proven that we can responsibly reopen, with science-based health and safety protocols strictly enforced at our theme park properties around the world," Potrock said in a statement. "Nevertheless, the State of California continues to ignore this fact, instead mandating arbitrary guidelines that it knows are unworkable and that hold us to a standard vastly different from other reopened businesses and state-operated facilities."