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SIOUX CITY -- The Sioux City Bandits season will not start as scheduled.

On Thursday evening, Champions Indoor Football board of directors announced that the league will be delaying the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns. The decision was derived after multiple facilities and municipalities throughout the league issued mandates to teams restricting them from playing games for the next several weeks.

CIF Commissioner Ricky Bertz said that the intent of the league was to proceed with the original schedule, but the league had no choice, based on current proactive restrictions being implemented throughout the country regarding the COVID-19 virus.

“Obviously, the majority of sports leagues and events have decided, at this time, to at least suspend current operations,” Bertz said. “Our league wanted to attempt to maintain as normal of a season as possible, but teams have begun being notified that arenas in the league are suspending all events, and many other elements, including travel and such are also being restricted.”

The CIF will implement a delay to the beginning of the season that is anticipated to last no longer than approximately 30 days. During that time, the league will continue to evaluate all options on how to proceed.