When sporting events get put back onto the calendar, those games will be played without fans until the coronavirus threat has subsided, President Donald Trump said Thursday afternoon.

“Many of them are going to be starting without the fans. It will be made for television — the good ole days, made for television,” Trump said, noting he spoke with most of the league commissioners Wednesday. "It'll go that way and then fans will start coming in, maybe they'll be separated by two seats.

Louisiana won't be among the first states to reopen after coronavirus, John Bel Edwards says Louisiana will not be among the first states to reopen, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday, as the White House offers governors guidance on h…

"And then ultimately we want to have packed arenas. When the virus is gone, we're going to have packed arenas. We're going to be back to enjoying sports the way they're supposed to be."

Trump did not give a timeline in his Thursday press briefing, which he used to announce his three-phase plan for reopening the country. Resuming sporting events — under certain conditions — was in the first phase, along with the opening of restaurants, movie theaters and gyms.

Reopening schools and bars is scheduled for Phase 2 of the plan.

The three-phase plan is, according to the guidelines, designed to "mitigate the risk of resurgence" of the coronavirus and to "protect the most vulnerable."

Trump's Wednesday conversation with most of the sports league commissioners came through his sports-focused council tasked with giving their thoughts as to when and how the country will reopen parts of its economy.

The commissioners of the NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, PGA, UFC, WNBA and the LPGA were involved with the call, as were New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Vince McMahon, the head of the WWE.

Trump, on Thursday, used Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium as an example for restoring to normalcy.

"Our normal is if you have 100,000 people in an Alabama football game or 110,000 to be exact, we want 110,000 people there," Trump said. "We want every seat occupied. Normal is not going to be where you have a game with 50,000 people."

Trump attended last season's LSU at Alabama game. The announced attendance for that contest was 101,821.

Replay: John Bel Edwards answers Louisiana's coronavirus questions in our virtual town hall Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards will participate in a virtual town hall on coronavirus with The Advocate and The Times-Picayune on Thursday af…

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday that he didn't want to extrapolate in April about how fall sporting events would work, but he did make mention of how the fan experience won't look the same.

Edwards opined that maybe every other seat or every third seat will be sold, rather than every seat. Or maybe new entrance and exit plans will need to be devised for the Mercedes-Benz Superdome and Tiger Stadium to keep people apart.

Or, Edwards theorized, maybe temperature checks and mask requirements will be put into place.

"I just don't know," Edwards said as a disclaimer, "but I can certainly see myself in Tiger Stadium because that's where I want to be, yelling for the Tigers so that they can successfully defend their national championship."

Also on Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading public health expert on the White House’s coronavirus task force, said in an interview that NBA, NFL and MLB games could return sooner than later if fans aren't in attendance.

"Nobody comes to the stadium," Fauci said. "Put them in big hotels, wherever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled. Have them tested like every week. And make sure they don’t wind up infecting them or their family and let them play the season out.”