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The VCU basketball team is set to take on Fordham on Wednesday night at home, but there will not be fans in attendance at the Siegel Center. The Richmond, Virginia area has been dealing with water issues for the past few days, and the arena currently doesn't have running water, creating a safety problem for fans. The game will be played as scheduled, but it will be played in an empty arena.
“News: VCU's home game tonight vs. Fordham will be played without fans in the stands, a source tells @CBSSports,” Matt Norlander said in a post. “School leaders made the decision b/c the Siegel Center doesn't have running water (Richmond has been dealing with water issues for days) and it's a public safety issue.”
VCU was hoping that they would get the problem resolved in time for the game, but they made the call at around 2:30 ET to not allow fans into the building.
“We had to make the very difficult decision this afternoon to hold our game tonight without any spectators or members of the general public,” VCU Vice President and Director of Athletics Ed McLaughlin said in a statement. “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.”
VCU will return to their home court next week as they will be hosting Saint Louis. The school is expecting to welcome fans back to the arena then as hopefully all of the water problems will be solved shortly.
“Shutting our doors to fans has major financial implications for our department and major impact on the student-athlete experience,” McLaughlin added. “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 VCU basketball team is currently 11-4 on the season and they are hoping to get a win tonight to get to a 12-4. Fordham is currently 8-7 and they will be on the road, however, the lack of fans will make the environment much less daunting.
VCU and Fordham will get things started at the Siegel center in Richmond, Virginia at 7:00 ET, and the game will be streaming on ESPN+. The Rams are currently favored by 16.5 points.
