Most Americans say that theaters, concert venues and stadiums should hold off reopening until a vaccine for the coronavirus has been developed, according to a new Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.
Just over half of respondents said live performance spaces should wait to reopen, while less than half of respondents who said they regularly visit these venues said that they would go back before a vaccine is developed, about the same amount as would wait to return until there’s a vaccine.
- 55% in total said spaces should wait for a vaccine.
- 40% would go if these spaces reopened before a vaccine was developed.
- 40% would wait for a vaccine.
- 20% don’t know or said they may not attend a live music, theatrical or sporting event again.
Most sports fans said that the leagues whose seasons have been disrupted by the outbreak, such as Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association, should resume without fans in attendance.
- 59% said sports should resume without fans.
- 33% said sports should not resume without fans.
“Just because people say we can go back, until people feel fully safe . . . they aren’t going to go back,” Victor Matheson, a sports economics specialist at the College of the Holy Cross, told Reuters.
“We go to games for entertainment and you’re not going to be very entertained if you’re not worrying about who the next player to bat is and instead worrying about that person who just coughed two rows down,” he added.
Reuters and Ipsos polled 4,429 American adults from April 15 to 21, with no margin of error given.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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