DFW apparently doesn’t have enough COVID-19 cases. So sure, bring on college playoff
Sports organizations: Is your super-spreader event making your usual host city squeamish?
Want to have crowds of fans in a stadium, restaurants and bars — the exact opposite of what health experts recommend amid alarming spikes in COVID-19 cases and deaths? Want to help us dance with dangerously low intensive-care capacity?
Boy, does Dallas-Fort Worth have a deal for you!
Bring us your multi-day rodeo. Bring us the game formerly known as the Rose Bowl. Heck, we’ll even take bowls you’ve never heard of.
We joke, but it’s no laughing matter that a college football playoff game is coming to AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Thousands of fans will come here to watch Alabama and Notre Dame and enjoy our hospitality. They’ll eat in restaurants and drink in bars. And they will undoubtedly fuel the already-raging spread of the coronavirus in Tarrant County.
Officials in California wouldn’t budge on having fans in the stadium. But whether it’s the prospect of tax revenue, help for struggling business or simply a can-do attitude, our leaders have said, sure, come on down. We certainly don’t want to emulate California in our approach to business, but the timing stinks.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHey, who writes these editorials?
Editorials are the positions of the Editorial Board, which serves as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s institutional voice. The members of the board are: Cynthia M. Allen, columnist; Steve Coffman, editor and president; Bud Kennedy, columnist; Ryan J. Rusak, opinion editor; and Nicole Russell, editorial writer and columnist. Most editorials are written by Rusak or Russell. Editorials are unsigned because they represent the board’s consensus positions, not the views of individual writers.
Read more by clicking the arrow in the upper right.
How are topics and positions chosen?
The Editorial Board meets regularly to discuss issues in the news and what points should be made in editorials. We strive to build a consensus to produce the strongest editorials possible, but when we differ, we put matters to a vote.
The board aims to be consistent with stances it has taken in the past but usually engages in a fresh discussion based on new developments and different perspectives.
We focus on local and state news, though we will also weigh in on national issues with an eye toward their impact on Texas or the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
How are these different from news articles or signed columns?
News reporters strive to keep their opinions out of what they write. They have no input on the Editorial Board’s stances. The board consults their reporting and expertise but does its own research for editorials.
Signed columns by writers such as Allen, Kennedy and Rusak contain the writer’s personal opinions.
How can I respond to an editorial, suggest a topic or ask a question?
We invite readers to write letters to be considered for publication. The preferred method is an email to letters@star-telegram.com. To suggest a topic or ask a question, please email Rusak directly at rrusak@star-telegram.com.
And it’s not even the first refugee bowl we’re taking in. On Thursday, Hawaii and Houston face off in the New Mexico Bowl in Frisco. Texas, to be clear.
Attendance at both games will be limited, though for Cowboys games, AT&T Stadium has seen nearly 30,000 fans. Officials say all the right things about requiring masks and enforcing social distancing. But let’s be clear about what we’re doing: We’re accepting events that will spread the virus and threaten our front-line workers to put sports on ESPN for holiday entertainment.
This Editorial Board has consistently said that it’s appropriate, even necessary, to find ways to live with the virus, to safely do as much of what we would normally do. But that requires keeping a level head about the situation as it currently is. And right now, we’re setting records for cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Now is not the time to invite visitors, even well-meaning fans of two of college football’s most storied programs.
Tarrant County health officials have urged people to stay at home as much as possible. County Judge Glen Whitley recently questioned whether high school and youth sports should continue. And during the last event, the National Finals Rodeo, an uncomfortably large portion of visitors to Fort Worth’s Cowboy Christmas event and other related activities were without masks.
But if we’re going to have the games — not just these two relocated bowls but also three of the four normally held in this area, including the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth — let’s make sure the people facing the most additional risk benefit. Those profiting directly off the games should donate generously to help our doctors, nurses and hospitals. The cities hosting these events should find a way to ensure sales tax revenue goes toward our ongoing public health crisis.
Arlington and Fort Worth need to step up code enforcement to ensure bars in particular don’t become crowded hotbeds of virus transmission. Organizers must insist on mask usage and follow through, and they should be vigilant about reminding people of the need to maintain distance from others. AT&T Stadium has a robust protocol, and it must be followed.
Locals should stay home as much as possible to mitigate the effect (and frankly, that’s a good idea anyway, given the virus situation). Meanwhile, to our visitors, we say: Please, have a great time, but think of our endangered servers, hosts, bartenders and other service industry workers who are placing themselves at risk to make your stay fun and memorable. Tip generously, but more importantly, help protect them as much as possible by following common-sense protocols.
The one bright side of this is that it will help struggling local businesses, particularly the hard-hit hospitality industry and restaurants. We’re glad to see them thrown a lifeline.
We’re on a path out of this pandemic, thanks to vaccines. But for our health care workers, more difficult times are ahead.
The least we can do for them, and ourselves, is make sure the guest bowl games are memorable for what happens on the field, not after the teams and fans depart.
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 10:21 AM.