Keep It Closed

We applaud Minnesota United's decision to close matches at Allianz Field to the public. As much as we all want to gather, sing, cheer, and raise a ruckus in the stands for our Loons, this is the right call— not only for our health, but for the health of stadium and game day workers, of transit workers who bring us to and from matches, of the players, and of everyone we come in contact with to whom we could transmit the virus.

For the same reason, we're asking our team to continue holding matches behind closed doors for the rest of the season. The pandemic is still in full swing— as rampant again in Minnesota as during the terrifying spring peak— and will likely continue to spread for some time, the result of decades of failed public health policy and our unique American fixation on profits and individual desire above all. Our political leadership has been unable to protect us, so, fairly or not, it falls to organizations like Minnesota United to step up and serve the higher public good. It can best do so by keeping games closed indefinitely. We'll be with them every step of the way.