City of Philadelphia to Require COVID Vaccination for Wells Fargo Center Attendance
Credit to Dave, who has been the guy keeping track of Philadelphia’s COVID guidelines as they pertain to sporting events.
With cases rising all over the place right now (it’s December, no surprise), the city is now going to require proof of vaccination for attendance at the Wells Fargo Center:
City of #Philadelphia announced that Starting January 3, for those attending #Flyers & #Sixers games at Wells Fargo Center must be vaccinated pic.twitter.com/ODsEdrxGht
— David Malandra Jr (@DaveMReports) December 13, 2021
More details here from NBC 10:
Initially, a recent negative COVID-19 test will also be accepted. However, after Jan. 17, negative COVID-19 tests will no longer be accepted for most patrons and vaccines will be required. Workers also must be vaccinated.
Children younger than 5 or those with valid medical or religious exemptions will be able to show a recent COVID-19 test to go inside.
The mandate applies to any establishment that sells food or drink to consume on-site. Locations that do take out only are not included, but the mandate does apply to movie theaters, restaurants inside hotels and the city’s indoor sports venues, such as the Wells Fargo Center.
For some context here, at the Sixers games, proof of vax and a mask was required for people sitting 15 feet from the floor, i.e. they were close to the bench and player area. Same thing for media, since we were once again given access to players and coaches via press conferences. We had to upload our vaccination card to the NBA website. That was a league rule and not a city thing. (edit – Russ says he had to show his proof of vax to pick up his Flyers credential, per NHL rules)
In this case, there will need to be clarification for how this affects players, because we could run into a situation similar to what kept Kyrie Irving off the floor in New York. If everybody in the building needs to be vaxxed, is there going to be an exemption for players? We’ll probably get word on that soon.
I’ll sniff around and see what else I can find out, but this looks pretty straightforward. Flyers, Sixers, Wings, etc – proof of vax or negative test up until January 17th, then vaccines after that.