Santa Clara County, home of 49ers, Stanford and San Jose State, bans all contact sports for 3 weeks due to COVID-19
Where are the San Francisco 49ers, Stanford Cardinal and San Jose State going to play their home football games over the next few weeks?
California’s Santa Clara County announced stringent new social distancing measures to help curb the spread of COVID-19 on Saturday. Those new measures include a three-week ban on contact sports in the county. The county said that ban applies to all professional, collegiate and youth sports teams.
The 49ers, Stanford and San Jose State play their home games in Santa Clara County. COVID-19 cases are spiking across California and the county said the order was made as available hospital capacity continued to dwindle.
“All recreational activities that involve physical contact or close proximity to persons outside one’s household, including all contact sports, will be temporarily prohibited,” the order says under the “Professional, collegiate and youth sports” header. “People can continue to engage in outdoor athletics and recreation where social distancing can be maintained at all times.”
49ers are home next 2 weeks
The 49ers have home games scheduled for Dec. 7 (Buffalo) and Dec. 13 (Washington), while Stanford has a home game set for Dec. 12 (Oregon State) and San Jose State has home games on tap for Dec. 5 (Hawaii) and Dec. 12 (Nevada).
The 49ers said in a statement Saturday afternoon that they were aware of the county’s order.
Statement from the San Francisco #49ers: pic.twitter.com/KbH6kcxYD2
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) November 28, 2020
The 49ers play at the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday while Stanford beat Cal on Friday. San Jose State’s game at Boise State was canceled earlier Saturday because of COVID-19 cases at Boise.
The county said it had been in touch with the teams set to be affected by the rules. The regulations would also apply to sports like basketball and others where players are in a confined space with each other.
"For those teams, they will not be able to play games or have practices where they have direct contact, within the county.
"We've been in touch with and will continue to be in touch with affected parties, including sports teams."
- Santa Clara County counsel James Williams:— Cam Inman (@CamInman) November 28, 2020
Practices are also banned under the order, so all affected teams will need to find other locations to practice. Stanford and San Jose State had previously done some preseason practices in other counties because of Santa Clara rules.
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