Masks required at all Maine high school basketball tournament sites

By Ernie Clark, Bangor Daily News Staff

As the 2022 Maine high school basketball tournament kicks into high gear Friday, facemasks will be required of those attending the games in Bangor, Augusta and Portland.

Both the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor and the Augusta Civic Center have a mandatory mask policy.

The two Portland sites, the Cross Insurance Arena and the Portland Exposition Building, additionally require either proof of vaccination, a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of the event, or a negative rapid test within 12 hours of entering either arena.

“As far as masking and our COVID policy we are a full, 100 percent mask-requiring building,” Cross Insurance Center general manager Tony Vail said. “We ask all the guests to bring their masks with them when they come into the facility.”

Vail said masks will be available for guests who forget to bring them.

“Our staff will be respectful but proactive when moving around the building,” he said. “If they see folks not wearing their masks they will be kind about asking them to wear masks and hopefully folks, putting safety and courtesy ahead of everything else, will do so and we won’t have any issues.”

Food and beverages will be available at concession areas around the Bangor site as they have been in previous years with no restrictions on where they are consumed.

“Again, hopefully folks will put their masks back on after they have a beverage or food and be respectful about it,” Vail said.

Vail is asking those who attend the tournament to have some patience with the concession services due to staffing challenges, much as personnel shortages for in-game officials and bus drivers has hampered high school basketball’s regular season.

Vail, other tournament facility leaders and the Maine Principals’ Association are hopeful that fans will return to the tournament in big numbers this year, not only to support the teams but to provide an economic boost to the host cities and the MPA. This annual rite of winter is the MPA’s biggest source of revenue to cover the cost of myriad other sports championships and activities it sponsors throughout the year.

For the Cross Insurance Center’s part, Vail said attendance at its recent non-basketball events “has done pretty darned well.”

“This is a tournament where people haven’t been here in two years and it’s very important to the families and the kids so hopefully they will have support from their schools and families and all the people that come out to make the week of the tournament the amazing spectacle and great event that it is.

“We want the place to be full.”