Sports leagues have lost money playing without fans to comply with Central Epidemic Command Center restrictions on large gatherings, with the Super Basketball League (SBL) and its rival P.League+ especially affected during their championship series.
Surges in local COVID-19 infections have prompted the center to impose new prevention measures until June 8, which include restricting outdoor gatherings and crowds at sporting events to fewer than 500 people and indoor gatherings to fewer than 100.
Following meetings by baseball teams and league officials, the CPBL said that its baseball games would be played in empty ballparks, without fans, while the basketball leagues on Wednesday also said they would hold post-season games without spectators.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
The restrictions are a blow to league finances, especially for the SBL and P.League+, as their championship finals are under way, leaving them unable to earn revenue from ticket sales.
P.League+ commissioner Chen Chien-chou (陳建州) said that the first two games of the finals were at capacity with 7,000 people attending at Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium, with total revenue of NT$17.2 million (US$614,023) from NT$14 million in ticket sales and NT$3.2 million from merchandise.
Starting with Thursday’s Game 3, the league and teams will lose nearly NT$10 million in revenue per game, Chen said.
CPBL officials said that each of the five teams have about 10 home games through June 8, and based on ballpark figures this season, they estimate ticket sale losses of NT$15 million per game.
The Formosa Taishin Dreamers are to try to even up the P.League+ final series today, again hosting the game at the Changhua County Stadium, but would have no home crowd to cheer them on.
In Game 3, the Fubon Braves took a 2-1 lead in the series, in a hard-fought overtime win against the Dreamers.
The SBL championship finals start today, with Taiwan Beer taking on the Yulon Dinos, with Game 2 tomorrow.
The new measures forced the SBL to move the games to the smaller Hao Yu Sports Center in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang District (新莊).
The first-round playoffs ended on Saturday last week, with the Dinos taking down Bank of Taiwan by three wins to advance, while Taiwan Beer swept Jeoutai Technology.
Taiwan Beer and the Dinos finished first and second in the standings respectively, wrapping up the season last month.
Taiwan Beer nailed down the top position early, with 31 wins against 9 defeats, while the Dinos chalked up a 26-14 record.
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