The beginning of New York’s reopening showed signs of widening further Saturday when Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the auto racing track at Watkins Glen and horse racing tracks across the state can reopen June 1, provided they operate without fans in attendance.
The governor, speaking during his daily news briefing, indicated that he would be OK with other professional sports moving forward as well, but given the multistate operations of leagues such as Major League Baseball, he couldn’t say when the Yankees and Mets might begin playing.
Five of 10 regions of the state were allowed to enter phase one of the administration’s four-phase reopening plan on Friday. That status allows some manufacturing and retail activities that had been shut down to fight the spread of the coronavirus to resume. In the remaining five regions, factors such as hospital bed availability and number of contact tracers hired still prevent entering the first phase.
The governor said that as economic activity and travel increase, it’s to be expected that there will be a similar increase in infections. The size of that increase will dictate whether the reopening is successful or if it has to be dialed back.
“Will we have a higher infection rate? Depends on what we do,” he said. “You increase economic activity, we expect to see an increase in [infection] numbers. We don’t want to see a spike. Well, will there be a spike? It depends on how people react, and it depends on their personal behavior.”
Cuomo said that sports events like pro baseball games should be able to operate fairly safely if played in stadiums empty of crowds, with the games broadcast on TV. The sheer amount of space available would make social distancing easier for those required to be at the park to stage the game, and having no fans would mean fewer staff members would be required.
However, “we don’t control baseball,” he said. “I’ve spoken to baseball organizations. One state can’t make that decision.”
He lauded the relief bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to help state and local governments that have seen their budgets hammered by a dramatic drop in tax revenue. The governor pointed out that it’s now in the hands of the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate to see if the legislation will advance or wither away.
Cuomo said that in light of previous relief packages that aided major corporations and small businesses, it was time for the Senate to now help out those who are, in turn, funded by state government.
“We don’t do space exploration in this state,” he said. “We fund schools, we fund hospitals, and we fund the local governments. That’s the state budget.”
