The indoor basketball courts at the Sun Devil Fitness Complex have been closed for almost a month. As the pandemic continues, people continue to get sick and spread the virus through a variety of methods. Basketball isn't absent from that list. However, neither are the grocery stores where no one in Arizona is wearing a mask and people are unvaccinated in large amounts. There are mass settings inside the ASU campus itself where unvaccinated students are sitting and conversing, eating in close quarters at the Memorial Union, and interacting closely in other such places.

Risk exists wherever you are on the ASU campus, and the basketball courts are not the main contributor to the spread.

As many students know, the courts at SDFC are the only (nice) courts in the area, and the closest ones that are accessible for all ASU students. If you want to play basketball right now in Tempe, you have to go to the cesspool that we call LA Fitness if you want an indoor court, or you have to head to a park in the communities surrounding the campus where some strange characters tend to hang out. You feel unsafe there, have to travel a far distance to get there, the court isn't nice, the hoops have triple rims, and the court size and quantity is extremely limited. This leads to many different issues at the courts themselves (long wait times for games, etc) as well as issues mentally for us hoopers (we love to ball, often use it is as a release from daily pressures/life activities and want to do so in the best possible environment). The closure of SDFC's courts has caused a collective feeling of sadness within the basketball community and has taken away an avenue for people to make friends, reduce stress, get exercise, and decompress.

Hoopers should not have to sacrifice their method of stress reduction and entertainment because of the virus. This is due to the fact that the same sacrifice is not being made in every other place on the ASU campus. If it was, then rules on mask wearing inside the memorial union, in class, around campus indoors would be heavily enforced, and certain things would be removed, as it is being done for the SDFC.

Bring back basketball at the SDFC! We understand if ASU waits a little just for the Omicron spike to pass, but after that we don't believe it is fair! ASU didn't care when the courts were fully open before during previous covid spikes, but they do now. Not saying learning and improving on their rules and strategies isn't a good thing, but this isn't the right way.

Bring back our hoops!