With COVID-19 cases on the rise in Arizona and health care facilities reaching capacity, the city of Mesa worked with hospitality, visitor and sports industry leaders on a public health strategy that places new requirements on sports tournaments.

At a city council study session Dec. 14, the Mesa officials announced enhanced safety protocols for youth and amateur sports tournaments held at city-owned facilities, according to a release.

The measures require event organizers to strictly enforce existing protocols, such as face masks for spectators, social distancing and reducing capacity on sports fields.

Failure to enforce these protocols could result in immediate cancellation of games, tournaments or the denial of future events, the city council announced.

The protocols went into effect Dec. 15 and apply to any safety plans previously submitted by event organizers and for all tournaments on or after Dec. 18.

“After hearing concerns from our health care community about the severity of the health crisis, we reached out to our partners at Visit Mesa to work together to tighten protocols in the visitor industry, to keep our residents safe and keep teams on the field,” Mesa Mayor John Giles said in the release. “We’ll continue to work in tandem with our hospitality and tourism industries to identify solutions that help keep our kids active and our economy healthy.”

Visit Mesa, the region’s convention and visitor’s bureau, has partnered with the city to propose protocols with specific attention to out-of-town visitors staying in Mesa hotels and using Mesa-owned sports fields. These are in addition to existing Mesa Clean Stay guidelines for hotels.

For details regarding safety protocols and guidelines at other city of Mesa facilities, go to mesaaz.gov/coronavirus.