MIT professor believes sports arenas can be ‘as safe as public parks’

One prominent data scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says there are steps sports teams can take that will make arenas “as safe as public parks”. Professor Alex Pentland, the head of the human dynamic lab at MIT, has released a paper this week suggesting companies can use digital tools to help create safer environments and that there could be applications to sports.

“The big things are distancing practices,” such as asking fans to wear masks, Pentland said. Between the recommendations: filling only half the seats to maintain distancing (families can sit together); checking fans’ temperature as they enter the stadium; fans who are seated in the same location enter from one gate and then sit together in order to “keep outbreaks localized to one physical area”. “If you can do this,” Pentland said, “then I think that sports events may become nearly as safe as public parks.”