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Empty Seats: The pandemic vs. a sports capital

KJZZ | By Matthew Casey
Published October 2, 2020 at 7:32 AM MST
empty seats podcast
Ambar Favela/KJZZ

Metro Phoenix is a member of a small club of cities that are home to all four major American pro sports franchises, plus some others. The Valley also has homegrown yearly sporting events which have made our home a sports destination chosen to host mega contests like Super Bowls and international soccer matches. But just as the metro area was about to put on its yearly bonanza athletic competitions, the coronavirus shutdown the entire sports industry. The games may be back now, but it’s still not safe for fans to fill the many local venues. Empty Seats is a podcast from KJZZ Original Productions about the pandemic versus a sports capital built in the Sonoran Desert.

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    Matthew Casey/KJZZ
    Empty Seats: Phoenix Raceway To Host Next Local Sports Mega Event Amid Pandemic
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    Phoenix Raceway is scheduled to host NASCAR’s Championship Weekend in early November. Four title races over three days add up to the next mega sports event here in the Valley. But the pandemic means NASCAR can’t fill all of the track’s 42,000 seats. This story is part of a six-part podcast project called Empty Seats, the pandemic versus a sports capital.
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    Tuesday of the week in March when COVID-19 crashed the sports industry — and started to shut down the United States — was also supposed to be a really important point in metro Phoenix’s yearly sports bonanza.
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    Tribes here have near total control of gaming in Arizona at more than two dozen casinos. Years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court let states legalize sports betting, and Arizona is not yet among the nearly two dozen states where it’s OK to gamble on games. Online and mobile wagering would mean more revenue for everyone involved.

Business
Matthew Casey
Matthew Casey has won Public Media Journalists Association and Edward R. Murrow awards since he joined KJZZ as a senior field correspondent in 2015.
See stories by Matthew Casey