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Arenas and stadiums home to professional sports teams around the United States are being utilized as polling stations for American citizens. This incredibly unique time provides teams and leagues with the opportunity to play a tremendous part in this year’s voting process.
According to the NBA, 23 arenas and facilities of teams are being used to contribute to the 2020 election. Some arenas, like State Farm Arena in Atlanta, are being used as voting precincts and others, like The Forum in Los Angeles, are being used as voting locations.
There was also initial intentions by the Toronto Raptors to open up Scotiabank Arena in Toronto as a registration location for American citizens living in Canada. There are around 650,000 Americans living in Canada who are eligible to vote.
Toronto Raptors' head coach Nick Nurse, who is an American citizen living in Canada, played a very large part in the team's efforts to bring in American voters in Canada. "We are going to open up Scotiabank later on for U.S. citizens to come in and register," Nurse said.
The Raptors were the only professional sports team that planned to open up their facilities outside of the United States. These plans were abandoned by the Raptors after rising Covid-19 cases in the city of Toronto and Province of Ontario led to tighter restrictions.
The NFL was also determined to help the voting process as 12 teams open up their facilities to be used during the election. Several stadiums, like Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, were being used as in-person voting sites on Election Day.
Using Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City as a polling station was slated to cost the Chiefs $100,000. Chiefs' quarterback Patrick Mahomes stepped in as his foundation picked up half of the price tag. "I thought Arrowhead was the perfect place for it," Mahomes said.
Perhaps the most unique use for a facility was Ford Field in Detroit. The Lions offered the stadium to be used as a holding site for ballots as well as voting equipment after the polls had closed. Detroit Lions employees were also given a paid day off to help on Election Day.
The MLB had five teams join the party as the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Washington Nationals all had plans to use their stadiums has election facilities. Four out of the five teams executed their plans to use their facilities.
The city of Milwaukee abandoned their plans to use the Brewers' Miller Park and the Bucks' Fiserv Forum over concerns that ballots casted there would be legally challenged. The two facilities may have been designated as voting locations too late making them ineligible to be used.
According to the Wisconsin Election Commission, early voting venues must have been designated before the June 12 deadline. Fiserv Forum and Miller Park were named early voting sites on September 1 which was 81 days after the deadline had passed.
The NHL also had five teams join in on Election Day festivities as the Los Angeles Kings, New Jersey Devils, New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Washington Capitals opened up their facilities. There was some overlap between the NHL and NBA as several teams share arenas.
The New York Rangers opened up Madison Square Garden to be used to be a polling site. The arena was used as a site for early voting as well as voting on Election Day. MSG is the largest polling site in New York City and well see over 60,000 citizens use the location.
On a more local level, the New Jersey Devils opened up the Prudential Center in Newark to be a voting center in the 2020 election. Election officials can help spread out voting booths to account for social distancing while still being able to have a large amount of voters.
Making sure people the ability to vote has been an issue many teams are tackling. The hope is that facilities used this year will be used in future elections. Instead of just talking about voting, leagues and teams chose to take action and give people the opportunity to vote.
Thread by Anthony Picinich
