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Oviedo and Sporting, oblivious to the new capacity limitation of the fields to 80%

The Interterritorial Health Council agreed yesterday to reduce the capacity in outdoor professional sports competitions to 75 percent and to 50 percent in indoor venues, given the high number of infections caused by the omicron variant of the coronavirus, from which they did not get rid of a day plus the main clubs of the different sports disciplines.

The decision adopted by the Ministry of Health together with the autonomous communities reduces to those percentages the maximum authorized spectators in LaLiga football matches, which resumes this weekend after the Christmas break, and that of basketball, which already has postponed several meetings scheduled for this week. It also includes measures to avoid crowds of the public both at the entrances and at the exits.

The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, detailed at the end of the meeting with the autonomous communities that the use of a mask will be mandatory and that smoking, eating or drinking will not be allowed in any sports venue. He also called for spectators to comply with these measures and advocated that the public who attend is preferably local to avoid mobilizations.

In Oviedo the new restrictions do not alter their plans. They do not do it immediately, since the measure is imposed as of January 1 and the duel against Ponferradina is tomorrow (2:00 p.m.) at the Tartiere (Valencia announced yesterday that it will play against Espanyol with full capacity), nor in the medium term. The measures affect the total number of spectators so, they argue from Oviedo, they do not have to carry out any relocation of seats in the stadium. The 75% limit in any case seems sufficient so that there are no problems with capacity.

Spectators at the Pumarín sports center. | Luisma Murias


The Carlos Tartiere has a capacity of 30,500 spectators, so the maximum number of fans who can meet at the stadium will now be 22,875, far from the capacity that is being seen this season, with a clear downward trend compared to the last years prepandemic. The average number of followers so far this year at the Tartiere is 8,968, the seventh in the Second Division. The match that registered the most fans in the stands was on the day of the derby against Sporting: 21,056 followers, despite the fact that the rojiblancas clubs refused to attend.

Sporting is in a similar situation. The number of spectators at the last matches were as follows: 7,300 against Alcorcón in the Cup (7,300), 9,680 against Huesca in the League, 7,000 against Ceares in the Cup and 8,890 against Fuenlabrada in the League. The capacity of El Molinón gives a wide margin to comply with the new sanitary regulations. “We respect the decision and we will apply the measures so that in El Molinón there is the capacity set by the institutions,” the club announced yesterday.

Unicaja Banco Oviedo Baloncesto may be more affected. Although in principle the restrictions affect professional competitions, the club fears that the Principality will take note and extend the indoor capacity limitation to 50 percent to all sports venues in the region. Taking into account the limited capacity of Pumarín, that would cause the cancellation in practice of all the tickets sold for the three games originally scheduled for Christmas and which were postponed due to the positive ones. These games include OCB-Girona, with Marc Gasol as a great attraction.

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