High school state title games, St. Patrick’s Day parade: What’s canceled in Sacramento

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement Wednesday night, strongly recommending that all planned events with more than 250 people be canceled or postponed, is poised to impact numerous Sacramento-area gatherings on top of those already scrapped or pushed back within the past few days because of coronavirus.

Wednesday evening saw unprecedented developments in the sports world. The NBA postponed the current season indefinitely after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The Kings’ slated home game against the New Orleans Pelicans, which would have been the last NBA game to tip off before that postponement took effect, was scratched at the literal last second.

Hours earlier, the NCAA had announced that its Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments (aka March Madness) would be played in arenas with extreme limits on fans, allowing only immediate family members in. On Thursday, those two tournaments were canceled entirely, along with all other remaining winter and spring NCAA championships, President Mark Emmert announced. Golden 1 Center had been set to host some first- and second-round games in the men’s tournament on March 20 and March 22.

K-12 school districts such as Elk Grove Unified; community college systems like Los Rios and Sierra College; and universities including Sacramento State and UC Davis have in large part canceled most on-campus events while also making a number of major changes including transitions to online learning and. In UCD’s case, the university canceled all in-person final exams.

In addition to schools and sports, there a number of other Sacramento-area events, festivities, concerts and other gatherings in the coming weeks for which attendance was expected to range from a few hundred to thousands of people. The statuses of many events are unclear as of Thursday morning; most organizers have not yet announced cancellation or rescheduling plans in light of Newsom’s recommendation.

Here’s some of what we know, and a lot of what we don’t know, about how some significant events in the region will be handled as the coronavirus crisis continues to disrupt the region, state, nation and world.

CIF state basketball title games canceled

The California Interscholastic Federation in a statement shortly after 9 a.m. announced boys and girls high school basketball championships have been canceled due to health concerns regarding the coronavirus.

Except for the boys’ Open Division title game for Northern California, which had been scheduled to be played at 7 p.m. tonight between Sheldon High School and Bishop O’Dowd at Cosumnes River College, all boys and girls regional brackets were completed, which would have sent the Northern California and Southern California champions for the open divisions and divisions I through V to the state title games this Friday and Saturday at Golden 1 Center.

Instead, the Sheldon boys’ season is over, as are all others.

“Effective Immediately - The California Interscholastic Federation (“CIF”) has canceled all remaining CIF State Basketball Championship games,” the statement signed by CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti said. “This includes regional finals scheduled for March 12, 2020, and the CIF State finals scheduled for March 13-14, 2020 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. This decision was made after careful deliberation and in the primary interest of protecting the health and safety of our member schools, fans, and most importantly, our student-athletes.”

St. Patrick’s Day parade in Old Sacramento canceled

The Old Sacramento Waterfront in a statement Thursday morning announced that the holiday parade and related festivities planned for Saturday have been canceled due to the COVID-19 situation.

“While this was a difficult decision, the health and safety of our community is our number one priority,” organizers said in an update posted to the Old Sacramento Waterfront website. “Many businesses, including bars and restaurants, will remain open at the Old Sacrament Waterfront for Sacramentans to celebrate the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.”

Shamrock’n Half Marathon postponed to fall

The Shamrock’n Half Marathon event and preliminary walk/run events that were planned for this Saturday and Sunday, starting at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento each morning, have been postponed tentatively to this fall, organizers said in a statement posted to the event’s website.

“The welfare of our running community is always our top priority,” the statement said. “Due to the rapidly developing coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, Shamrock’n weekend ... has been postponed to a tentative date this fall.”

The statement cited Newsom’s statement Wednesday night, and said runners would be spent further communication regarding specific postponement details.

The annual event, which includes a 5K and 10K run as well as the “Leprechaun Dash” and is sponsored by Blue Diamond Almonds, had expected more than 6,000 total participants over two days, according to its website.

Cal Expo events, including Sac-Con comic convention, pushed

Sac-Con, or Sac Comic-Con, in a March 5 update wrote that it was not planning to cancel its upcoming March 22 convention at Cal Expo, but Cal Expo’s online calendar on Thursday indicated the event has been postponed to June 7. No further information was provided by the organizers or venue.

Also postponed according to Cal Expo’s calendar is a quilt, craft and sewing festival that was set for March 19-21, now moved to Oct. 1-3.

On March 25 and March 26, Cal Expo is supposed to host the California Dairy Sustainability Summit, which according to its website includes more than 600 registered attendees including 200 dairy farmers and more than 75 speakers. The event is still planned to proceed, its website showed as of Thursday morning.

First two Golden 1 Center concerts postponed

Planned performances at Golden 1 Center by JoJo Siwa on March 25, and V101’s “Heart of Hip Hop” concert featuring rap artists E40, Xzibit, J.J. Fad and more, which was set for March 28, have been canceled.

Siwa will return in mid-June, while the V101 event has been rescheduled to a date that has yet to be determined, according to the venue.

No official update yet on these Sacramento-area events

For the following events, organizers in their most recent update indicated that the event would proceed as planned, but have not as of early Thursday morning announced decisions in light of Newsom’s recommendation that large gatherings be canceled or postponed:

Concerts at Golden 1 Center:

Looming around the corner for the venue, which seats more than 17,000, are a number of big-name music acts, as well as two moderated conversations with former First Lady Michelle Obama set for April 1.

A week after Obama’s scheduled appearance Celine Dion is supposed to come to town April 7 and Billie Eilish a night later on April 8.

Golden 1 Center has not yet announced or indicated whether any of these events will be impacted.

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