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Schools around Blair county are now beginning to allow increased spectators at games, and Bellwood may soon follow suit.  

The Bellwood-Antis School Board has scheduled a meeting for tomorrow, September 24, to discuss establishing new fan limitations for B-A sports.

The push to loosen fan restrictions at school events to prevent to spread of COVID-19 gained momentum yesterday when a federal judge declined to stay a ruling that Gov. Tom Wolf’s size limits on public gatherings like sporting events are unconstitutional.

Wolf has said he will appeal the decision.

The governor is fighting to keep restrictions in place that limit crowd sizes for activities like high school sports to 25 for indoor events and 250 for outdoor events. Those numbers severely limit a team’s ability to provide tickets for even just family members because they include players, coaches, trainers, and officials. B-A has allowed each football player from Bellwood-Antis to bring two relatives, while it has not allowed visitors to bring fans to home games.

Indoor events like volleyball have not been able to provide seating for any fans because of the amount of players on the team.

One school that is allowing fans into games is Tyrone.  Tyrone has decided to allow 1,100 people at their football games at Gray-Veterans Memorial Field, which is approximately 25% capacity.  Altoona is also another school allowing spectators, permitting 33% capacity at Mansion park. 

So now fans are asking- when will Bellwood do the same?

Athletic Director Charlie Burch was at a meeting with Inter-County Conference officials Wednesday to plan a consistent course of action for league schools.

Even though it’s not a guarantee, players and fans alike are excited at the prospect of having fans at their sporting events.  Now it’s a waiting game to see what the school board decides.