With the announcement of the return to spring sports, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) also announced its decision to not allow spectators at spring sporting events. According to Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs Tyler Unsicker, the league felt like not allowing spectators would be the safest option for everyone. The athletic department is working on improving the live stream experience for games.

The conference office met and looked at the state and local regulations for all the GNAC schools. Some schools such as NNU are going back to in person classes and their community is reopening, allowing youth sports and fans because Idaho has different COVID-19 guidelines. Whereas a school like CWU is still doing online classes and our state is not in a phase to open up.

Since no school in the GNAC is in the same boat, they decided to not allow fans at any event because that is what they believed would keep everyone the safest. They don’t want fans traveling and interacting with the players for them to come back to their school and potentially spread the disease even more according to Unsicker.

Everyone is going to have a different opinion on whether fans should be allowed, but the league voted it this way for a reason said Unsicker. It does suck that seniors this year will not be able to play their final collegiate season with their family in the stands, but at least there will be streaming options.

Some sports in the past have not had the best quality streams such as baseball and softball because it was not the focus since fans could be at the games. But now since all the viewers will be streaming, Unsicker said the school is trying to improve that aspect for everyone watching.

Unsicker said they are trying to find other ways to find different camera angles to try to give a better view of the game and help fans have a better viewing experience. 

Unsicker said how some sports only had one camera for their streams and it was difficult to watch. Now they are trying to add four to five new camera angles that will hopefully make the viewing experience for each team much better.

There is no say in when the GNAC will allow fan attendance again. But for now, fans can expect a much improved live streaming experience.