The boys in blue will be back on a limited basis for voluntary individual training sessions at the 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del., the team announced on Monday.
The team will hold multiple sessions today through Friday. A maximum of four players will participate in each session on the outdoor training field. Access to the complex will be restricted to players and essential staff only.
The facility near downtown Wilmington is where the team opened their training camp back in January. The facility, which opened in January 2019 and is home to the G League Delaware Blue Coats and the recently launched Sporting Delaware youth soccer club, is operated by the Buccini/Pollin Group, which are part owners of the Philadelphia Union.
The team worked with local health officials and Major League Soccer, which still has a league-wide moratorium on small group and full team training through June 1, to develop safety protocols. They include:
- Restricting training facility access to essential staff only, with specific staff listed in the plan.
- Sanitization and disinfection plans for all training equipment and spaces, including disinfection of any equipment used by players (balls, cones, goals) between every session.
- Completion of an assessment survey by each player prior to every arrival at the training site, and temperature checks upon arrival at the facility.
- Staggered player and staff arrivals and departures, with designated parking spaces to maintain maximum distance between vehicles.
- Player use of personal protective equipment from the parking lot to the field, and again on return to the parking lot.
- Staff use of the appropriate personal protective equipment throughout training, while also maintaining a minimum distance of 10 feet from players at all times.
- Hand washing and disinfectant stations for required use before and after individual workouts.
- Outdoor fields will be divided into a maximum of four quadrants per field. Each quadrant is 35X55 with five yards between each grid. A maximum of one player per quadrant may participate per training session with no equipment sharing or playing (passing, shooting) between players.
- An Emergency Action Plan for all COVID-19 related issues.
