B8 N THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020
HOCKEY
Tim Leiweke could hardly con-
tain his enthusiasm while he ges-
tured toward what will be center
ice at the Islanders’ future home
at Belmont Park.
Leiweke, the chief executive of
the venue development firm Oak
View Group and a partner with
the Islanders for UBS Arena, was
discussing the team’s run to the
conference finals increasing fan
support for a project that broke
ground last September and will be
ready to host games in about a
year.
Ticket demand is strong, with
about half of premium club seats
and the arena’s 56 suites selling in
the past three months, he said.
“The team generated such a
buzz and we were able to ride that
buzz,” Leiweke said.
But amid all the anticipation of
the Islanders at long last having a
state-of-the-art $1 billion home,
there will be the never-ending
concern of finding ways to incor-
porate normalcy and ensure
safety for when the team, it hopes,
hosts more than 17,000 people at
games in late 2021.
After the pandemic shutdown,
the N.H.L. resumed its 2019-20
season in two so-called bubbles in
Canada without fans in the stands.
Once games return to home mar-
kets and spectators stream back
into arenas, fans at Belmont Park
will experience many new fea-
tures, including cashless conces-
sion transactions to limit contact
and help lines move along faster.
No U.S. sports league that plays
its game indoors has widely per-
mitted fans to attend games yet
but N.F.L. teams with retractable
roof stadiums — including the At-
lanta Falcons and the Dallas Cow-
boys — have allowed limited ca-
pacity crowds.
“We are waking up every day
and trying to figure out how to
have clean air,” Leiweke said.
“That is critical to get people back
to the live experience. We will get
their confidence back.”
The Belmont project was on
hold for two months after New
York put restrictions in place to
slow the spread of coronavirus in
mid-March, when it struck with fe-
rocity. UBS Arena is expected to
be completed in time for the 2021-
22 season.
The Islanders won’t be the only
team in a new venue. The expan-
sion Seattle Kraken — the N.H.L.’s
32nd team — will begin play next
year at the carbon-neutral Cli-
mate Pledge Arena, where the
project was delayed for only two
days.
Leiweke’s firm is working on
both arenas — a scenario that has
presented challenges and a
chance for synergy in terms of
safety and sustainability. Up to
1,000 workers are on site in each
venue on a given day, he said.
“These were two cities that had
to deal with the impact of the pan-
demic early on,” he said. “We’ve
taken a leadership position on
sanitization. We will have sophis-
ticated filters that cleans what
comes and goes. We also have to
remember that when the vaccine
comes, it is not the cure.”
He added: “We have to be at a
point where the virus is on the
other side of the mountain. We’re
going to extremes.”
In addition to ensuring clear air
for fans, the home of the Kraken
will particularly focus on renew-
able energy, with solar panels on
its atrium plus the arena mechan-
ical systems, heating, dehumidifi-
cation and cooking systems run-
ning on electric power. Single-use
plastics will be eliminated over
time, and there will be electric
charging stations for vehicles out-
side.
Ed Bosco, the managing princi-
pal at ME Engineers, has the task
of studying and implementing air-
borne virus reduction solutions at
UBS Arena. The company is work-
ing with more than 50 existing
venues.
His team studied medical data
that came from the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention,
domestic and foreign universities’
research, and testing completed
by equipment manufacturers and
by international health research
organizations. The goal is to make
sure the Belmont arena would be
ahead of the health curve, an
evolving process.
“Buildings constructed before
Covid-19 needed to balance com-
fort, safety and the fan experi-
ence,’’ said Bosco, whose firm has
worked on venues like Madison
Square Garden, the U.S.T.A. Billie
Jean King National Tennis Center,
Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.
Bosco said government guid-
ance on airflow rates and occu-
pant spacing used to reopen
schools has been a valuable tool.
Because sports and entertain-
ment venues have high ceilings
and large concourses, he said,
there is more air per person than
in a typical classroom. At this
year’s United States Open, closely
supervising the operation of
HVAC equipment helped increase
ventilation in indoor spaces used
by players and event staff mem-
bers by a factor of three, Bosco
said.
Bosco also explained that active
virus particles in the air can be re-
duced by ventilation, filtration, lo-
cal dilution and exposing the virus
to ultraviolet radiation.“We can adapt existing build-
ings to operate differently when
Covid is a concern and revert back
to operating them as they do to-
day when Covid has passed,” he
said. “At UBS the systems will be
newly calibrated and heavily
tested during construction so we
can be more certain about the data
we collect and the building’s re-
sponses to tests we are running.”
Bosco added that having time to
adjust UBS Arena before it opens
has proved valuable.
“We’re starting to find solutions
that really rise to the top,’’ he said.
“We are looking at the big picture
and how that influences the return
of public assembly. It feels like
these events are going to be what
lets us get comfortable being back
together as a society.”
Also involved in the UBS
project is Matt Goodrich, whose
eponymous firm is responsible for
layouts and designs of corporate
suites and public space inside and
outside of the arena. One option
that will be present in the arena
will be touchless features in the
bathrooms.
“We had a project this big hap-
pening over a long period of time
and then Covid popped into our
consciousness relatively late in
the process,” Goodrich said.
Both arenas will also harken
back to earlier generations. Bel-mont’s architecture will feature
archways and brickwork reminis-
cent of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Eb-
bets Field.
History is also a key element in
Seattle, where the roof at Climate
Pledge Arena is from the 1962
World’s Fair, a homage to Presi-
dent John F. Kennedy’s focus on
space exploration that Leiweke
insisted on including.
The arena, which will also host
the W.N.B.A.’s Seattle Storm, will
promote sustainability by encour-
aging fans to collect rainwater
that will be turned into ice for their
hockey team.
“They can bring it over in buck-
ets and we will put it into our sys-
tem and plant,” Leiweke said. “We
will use it not only to put down the
first sheet of ice, but to maintain
all year long.”
As work continues on both
coasts, Leiweke’s zest has no time
to wane. The Kraken will give Se-
attle its long-awaited N.H.L. team,
and the Islanders will be skating
in a brand-new arena.
“Kudos to the crews out there to
get that done for our organization
and fans,” Anders Lee, the Island-
ers’ captain, said. “It’s going to be
a special spot. We’re all going to
enjoy the heck out of the Coliseum,
give it another phenomenal ride.
Belmont is right around the cor-
ner and it’s exciting.”New Arenas Rise, but They Have to Cope With Covid
The UBS Arena at Belmont Park has echoes of Ebbets Field.
CALLA KESSLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESThe Islanders plan to open their new arena in the 2021-22 season.
CALLA KESSLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESUp to 1,000 workers are on site each day at the Islanders’ arena.
CALLA KESSLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMESThe home site of the Seattle Kraken will be carbon-neutral.
ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESSThe Islanders and the
Kraken create facilities for
the post-pandemic world.
By ALLAN KREDA
letes, leaning into the backlash
against Colin Kaepernick, then
the San Francisco 49ers quarter-
back who had just started his
protests against police brutality
and the mistreatment of Black
people by kneeling during the
national anthem.
As I watched Obama and Vice
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. say
goodbye to the Cavaliers, I was
struck by the sense that the easy
communion between athletes
and the presidency was about to
change in a way that might prove
unalterable.
Sports teams first visited the
White House in 1865, when Presi-
dent Andrew Johnson welcomed
baseball’s Washington Nationals
and Brooklyn Atlantics. Still, it
wasn’t until Ronald Reagan took
office in 1981 that hosting sports
champions at the Rose Garden
became routine.
Reagan reveled in such mo-
ments. He hammed it up with the
national champion Georgetown
men’s basketball team, threw a
pass to a wide receiver for Wash-
ington’s Super Bowl-winning
football team and got a popcorn
drenching from the New York
Giants’ Harry Carson.
But as time passed and new
presidents continued the tradi-
tion, the nation’s growing politi-
cal divide crept in.
The golfer Tom Lehman
turned down an invitation from
President Bill Clinton, whom
Lehman called a “draft-dodging
baby killer.” In 2012, Baltimore
Ravens offensive lineman Matt
Birk, an opponent of abortion
rights, refused to accompany his
Super Bowl-winning team to visit
Obama. That year, Boston Bruins
goalie Tim Thomas, an avid
backer of the conservative Tea
Party, declined to accompany his
Stanley Cup-winning teammates
for their Rose Garden visit.
But whole teams turning down
the White House?
Sure enough, angered by his
policies and rhetoric, embold-
ened by the evolution in athlete
activism, not a single N.B.A.
championship winner visited
Trump these last four years.
In 2017, after the Warriors won
the title and the league and the
White House were discussing a
visit, Stephen Curry said he
would not attend — prompting
the president to bark back over
Twitter: “Going to the White
House is considered a great
honor for a championship team.
Stephen Curry is hesitating.
Invitation is withdrawn.”
Soon, James shot back with a
tweet, calling the president a
“bum,” and adding, “Going to the
White House was a great honor
until you showed up!”
Some teams did visit. But
others skipped it, were not invit-
ed or had invitations rescinded
when it became clear few players
would attend. Since 2016, none of
the W.N.B.A. champions have
gone to the White House. Same
for North Carolina’s men’s
N.C.A.A. championship basket-
ball team, South Carolina’s title-
winning women’s basketball
team and the 2018 Super Bowl
champion Philadelphia Eagles. I
could go on.
Trump was left with narrowing
opportunities to play host. He
feted the Alabama and Clemson
football teams, and a few cham-
pions from mostly white, conser-
vative-leaning sports like base-
ball and hockey. For a while, he
could count on the New England
Patriots, whose owner, Robert K.
Kraft, and coach, Bill Belichick,
are Trump supporters. After
winning the Super Bowl at the
end of the 2016 season, however,
nearly half of the players steered
clear of the White House. And
when New England was victori-
ous again two years later, the
team didn’t visit at all.
So much for the days of easy
communion.
It has been four hard years
since that day of awe and tension
in the White House. Will James,
now having led the Los Angeles
Lakers to the 2020 title, return
with his new team to visit Presi-
dent Biden? Bank on it. Expect
the W.N.B.A.’s Seattle Storm, who
conquered their league title this
year and endorsed Biden, to do
the same, along with teams that
didn’t back a candidate but fo-
cused instead on boosting voter
registration and turnout.
But with swaths of the country
arguing, without evidence, that
last week’s election was stolen,
will conservative champions or
players begin turning down
visits to the Biden White House?
That’s not hard to imagine.
It is impossible to say what
will happen in future presiden-
cies, with future generations of
athletes. For now, sadly, we can
assume that the Rose Garden
celebration of champions, once a
chance to cast aside differences
and revel together in greatness,
will limp forward, scarred and
fractured, same as America.Keeping
The Score
On a Divide
From First Sports PageSPORTS OF THE TIMES
BASKETBALL
Precious Achiuwa has never
been in the same place for long.
He tends to be on the move — from
Nigeria to New York to Memphis.
Stationed in Long Island City,
Queens, for the past seven months
as he prepares for the N.B.A. draft
on Nov. 18, Achiuwa has been cop-
ing with a rare period of extended
monotony. A projected first-round
pick who spent last season at the
University of Memphis, Achiuwa,
21, works out with his trainer. He
does “a whole bunch of Zoom
calls” with front-office personnel.
He takes unscripted naps. He vis-
its with his older brother God’sgift
Achiuwa, 30, who lives not far
from him in Queens.
But it has been a fairly solitary
and stationary existence, a
change of pace for a 6-foot-9 for-
ward with drive.
“Seven months of doing the
same thing,” he said, “over and
over.”
He misses competition, he said.
Games of five-on-five have been
off-limits during the coronavirus
pandemic. He has tried to fill the
void in creative ways. His first
love growing up in Nigeria was
soccer, and he has a ball at his
apartment that he juggles with his
feet every day.
“I set goals for myself,” he said.
“I’ll be like: ‘You know what? I did
25 in a row yesterday. Today, I’m
going to try to get 30.’ ”
But the wait is nearly over.
Training camps are tentatively set
to open Dec. 1, just 13 days after
the draft. For prospective first-
year players like Achiuwa, it will
be a quick transition. No summer
league. No long runway to accli-
mate to the league. And no time to
waste. Achiuwa is eager to learn
where he will wind up next.
His life, in many ways, has been
a nomadic one. One of six siblings,
he grew up in Port Harcourt, Ni-
geria, where his parents, Donatus
and Eunice, were Pentecostal
ministers. In Port Harcourt, over
350 miles southeast of Lagos by
car, soccer was the game of choice.
Basketball was not that alluring to
Achiuwa — not when he was very
young, anyway.
“We had a basketball around
the house, and I’d pick it up and
dribble it once or twice,” he said.
“Then I’d put it back down and go
back to kicking the soccer ball.”
But around the same time he
was finding himself towering over
his friends on the soccer field —“It was just so awkward,” he said
— God’sgift Achiuwa was carving
out a path that his younger
brother would one day follow.
As a teenager, God’sgift at-
tended a basketball camp in Ni-
geria where he was scouted by
Alex Nwora, the longtime coach at
Erie Community College in Buf-
falo. Nwora eventually offered a
scholarship, and God’sgift — a 6-
foot-8 forward — jumped at the
chance.
“I think any time a kid from Af-
rica has the opportunity to come
to the U.S. to play basketball and
get an education, it’s a no-brainer,”
God’sgift Achiuwa said.
God’sgift later transferred to St.
John’s, where he played for two
seasons before graduating in- By then, Precious was 14 and
showing promise of his own as a
basketball player. So much prom-
ise, in fact, that God’sgift wanted
his brother to live with him in
Queens so that he could attend
high school in the city. God’sgift
approached several coaches to
gauge their interest.
“Some of them were actually
demanding video of him playing,”
God’sgift said. “And I told them:
‘Listen, he’s going to at least be as
tall and as big as I am. It runs in
the family.’ ”
He secured a scholarship for
Precious to attend Our Saviour
Lutheran School in the Bronx,
starting as an eighth grader. Their
parents were on board with the
plan.
“Knowing that I would be get-
ting an education made it a lot eas-
ier for them to let go of me at a re-
ally, really young age,” Precious
said.
On one of his first days in the
United States, God’sgift intro-
duced his brother to a staple of
New York City life: the subway.
“There was nobody on the
street,” Precious said. “And then
all of a sudden there were just so
many people coming out from the
underground. And I’m looking at
my brother, like, ‘Yo, what’s going
on?’ ”
Before long, Precious was com-
muting to school in the Bronx — a
four-hour round trip that required
the use of both the subway and
public buses. He quickly estab-
lished himself as one of the top
freshman players in the country.
His brother had been entrusted by
their parents to keep an eye on
him. But Precious seemed
uniquely focused.
“I didn’t have to go to any meet-
ings or sit in front of any princi-
pals,” God’sgift said. “He’s a really
good kid.”
As Precious’ talents became
more obvious, he sought better
competition by transferring to St.
Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J.,
where he lived with a teammate’s
family, and later to Montverde
Academy, near Orlando, Fla.,where he was a McDonald’s all-
American as a senior.
Even then, he was still rela-
tively new to the game — new
enough that he was unfamiliar
with Penny Hardaway, the coach
at Memphis who was recruiting
him. (A friend suggested that
Achiuwa watch some of Hard-
away’s old highlights online.)
Cody Toppert, one of Hard-
away’s assistants, said Achiuwa
was not a guaranteed “one-and-
done” player when he arrived at
Memphis before the start of last
season. But the coaching staff
could sense that he had come with
purpose: to maximize his time.
For example, he stayed late after
most practices to refine his 3-
point shot, which he knew would
be a prerequisite for a player his
size in the N.B.A.
“He basically had this willing-
ness to do whatever it was going
to take to make sure he wasn’t
coming back for a second year,”
Toppert said.
The spotlight found Achiuwa
early in the season after James
Wiseman, the team’s center and
one of the top prospects in the
draft, ran into eligibility problems
and left school after playing inthree games. In Wiseman’s ab-
sence, Hardaway went with a
smaller lineup. Achiuwa ran the
court, defended multiple positions
and proved to be an energetic
leader.
“It kind of happened by acci-
dent because James left,” Toppert
said. “But there’s no doubt that it
created an opportunity for Pre-
cious to show an extreme level of
versatility.”
After averaging 15.8 points and
10.8 rebounds while shooting 49.3
percent from the field, Achiuwa
was named the American Athletic
Conference’s player of the year as
a freshman. When the season was
cut short by the pandemic, he de-
clared for the draft and returned
to Queens to prepare for the next
phase of his life.
His basketball dreams have in-
volved sacrifice. His father re-
cently died, and he has not seen
his mother in about three years.
But he talks with her on the phone
nearly every day, he said, and
there is a chance that she will be
able to travel to New York this
month to watch the draft with him.
It would mark the end of one
journey — and the beginning of
another.Before the Draft, a Player in Motion
Tries to Do the Unthinkable: Sit Still
Precious Achiuwa, a Memphis star, has been training in Queens.
BUTCH DILL/ASSOCIATED PRESSBy SCOTT CACCIOLAStops include Nigeria,
New York, Memphis
and, soon, the N.B.A.