VCU will play tonight's basketball game without fans
VCU basketball will face Fordham tonight in a game without spectators, due to the city's water crisis. It will be the first time that's happened since the pandemic.
“We had to make the very difficult decision this afternoon to hold our game tonight without any spectators or members of the general public,” Vice President and Director of Athletics Ed McLaughlin said in a release. “We wanted to wait as long as possible but water service has not returned to the Siegel Center, despite assurances throughout the last two days that it would. We hoped to serve the role of a place for our fans to gather and enjoy a few hours of happiness during a time when so many people in our community have suffered grave challenges.
“Shutting our doors to fans has major financial implications for our department and major impact on the student-athlete experience. We did not make this decision lightly and gave it as much time as humanly possible. As a city resident still without water, I know what the length of this outage has done to many homes in our community. We look forward to having fans back in the Siegel Center next Tuesday night, Jan. 14, when we host Saint Louis University.”
The game will be televised on local cable television by MASN and available nationally on the ESPN+ subscription service. A radio broadcast will be available on 910 The Fan in Richmond. (Note: The author of this story also works for 910 The Fan.)
This has been a breaking news story.
