Sports and The Pandemic

Rat Boy wrote:

Meanwhile, baseball appears to be back. Until someone f*cks up.

This was the easy part.

Playing games in a Failing State where the pandemic is out of control might make the agreement moot.

I say there's no baseball either this year.

The countries that have brought back some form of pro sports don't look anything like the US in terms of COVID infections.

We are almost exactly where we were first part of March, right before the big shutdowns happened. We cancelled:

Final Four
UFCs
The Masters (!)

Team sports aren't happening during a pandemic.

Top_Shelf wrote:

I say there's no baseball either this year.

The countries that have brought back some form of pro sports don't look anything like the US in terms of COVID infections.

We are almost exactly where we were first part of March, right before the big shutdowns happened. We cancelled:

Final Four
UFCs
The Masters (!)

Team sports aren't happening during a pandemic.

That's a great way of putting it Top_Shelf.

Global News wrote:

Henry has signed off on a plan requiring players to quarantine for 14 days if they are coming from outside Canada. But there have been provisions made so players can all quarantine together at both the hotel and arena with no interaction with the public.

This is encouraging to me. Still doesn't seem like a good idea but it's better than the other plans.

Vector wrote:
Global News wrote:

Henry has signed off on a plan requiring players to quarantine for 14 days if they are coming from outside Canada. But there have been provisions made so players can all quarantine together at both the hotel and arena with no interaction with the public.

This is encouraging to me. Still doesn't seem like a good idea but it's better than the other plans.

I'm not sure I understand this. How do you quarantine in a hotel without overlapping with the public? Is the whole hotel reserved for just hockey players? Have the service and support staff been removed? Likewise, is the whole team structure of players, coaches, assistants, food fetchers and clothes washers all also going to be part of this quarantine?

Carving out exceptions is how you end up with ineffective quarantines.

It’s why it’s not going to happen. I don’t know if it is for show or ignorance, but the dance sports leagues are playing right now is also contributing to the hyper spread we see now.

But, since Americans are incapable of acting in any unifying manner unless they are scared, we have to watch multiple leagues try to start and fail, while Florida and Texas see super surges, and with over half the states seeing increases in cases.

Fox and Trump have done a pretty amazing job selling blinders as patriotic. It really scares me how far we have to fall to get enough Americans to wake up.

With yesterday’s news, I am more scared than ever to leave my house. Young adults are spreading this like wildfire, and with MAGA refusing to wear masks, St. Louis feels like a minefield right now.

I get leagues wanting to be ready to go if the virus broke, but if they wanted to actually play, they should have been imploring fans to isolate, social distance, and wear the damn masks. Instead, they worked on fantasies like starting play with cases everywhere.

More, it’s been really disheartening to see, not just fans, but sports journalists ripping the player and owners for not playing. They call owners cheap and players selfish, as though encouraging leagues and players to put themselves in harms way, physically and economically, so that they can continue to make money writing about sports isn’t disgustingly selfish.

Right now. f*ck every league. I hope the players come out of this pandemic and tell owners to go f*ck themselves and start up player-owned leagues.

Vector wrote:
Global News wrote:

Henry has signed off on a plan requiring players to quarantine for 14 days if they are coming from outside Canada. But there have been provisions made so players can all quarantine together at both the hotel and arena with no interaction with the public.

This is encouraging to me. Still doesn't seem like a good idea but it's better than the other plans.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm not sure I understand this. How do you quarantine in a hotel without overlapping with the public? Is the whole hotel reserved for just hockey players?

Oh, BC has had travel shut down for several months. There's been a bit to and from Alberta but nothing much else. Vancouver hotels are almost completely empty so reserving one entirely for players for two weeks isn't the problem.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Have the service and support staff been removed? Likewise, is the whole team structure of players, coaches, assistants, food fetchers and clothes washers all also going to be part of this quarantine?

This I have no idea. Several hotels here come with fully equipped kitchens, washing machine areas, communal areas, etc. Groceries get delivered and the players can look after themselves that way. It honestly doesn't seem that difficult. Odds are the current staff have already been laid-off or furloughed.

Edit: Just want to be clear that I mean the basic idea is pretty simple. The logistics is where it all breaks down. There will be 12 teams, 30 players, and, I believe, probably around 60 total per team. About 720 people. Feeding, providing any required medicine, entertainment, etc. for that many people seems damn near impossible. Vancouver did handle the Olympics well and that was a similar influx in an isolated zone so there's some precedent. I don't think it's a good idea, though.

Jayhawker wrote:

More, it’s been really disheartening to see, not just fans, but sports journalists ripping the player and owners for not playing. They call owners cheap and players selfish, as though encouraging leagues and players to put themselves in harms way, physically and economically, so that they can continue to make money writing about sports isn’t disgustingly selfish.

Right now. f*ck every league. I hope the players come out of this pandemic and tell owners to go f*ck themselves and start up player-owned leagues.

Precisely. Nothing is so sacrosanct in this country as the dollar. Hilarious that journalists working for huge companies continue to push "Sports have to get back!" without acknowledgement that this serves the narrative of money above all else and serves their bosses' interests. Entertainment must not be stopped during the End Times!

FWIW, I feel a bit different about individual sports where precautions appear to be doable.

I think individual sports can be done based on setting and what individuals will do.

I don’t necessarily think golf is a bad idea. They don’t have fans. And I feel like they can social distance staff and media crew enough. They don’t have to quarantine, because they can hopefully mitigate over the course of 4 days.

Of course, I hope they can play norther courses. The south is a mess.

I really think ya'll are underestimating A.) How loud the money talks and B.) How much louder the "It's only a 1% death rate and old people should just stay home" contingent is. College FB is up in the air, but the pro leagues? I'd bet a whole paycheck right now, they're gonna play.

Our state's (MN) youth soccer programs just shifted to full practices and scrimmages. I think that's nuts. No testing, no temperature checks, just go for it. How is this in any way a good idea? I think they were freaking out because when the youth seasons got cancelled lots of kids dropped out (just practices? no games? screw that) and then when they started practicing again with social distancing kids who were left hated it and stopped coming. This feels like a survival reflex from youth soccer that flies in the face of public safety, but apparently they must approval to do this? I'm baffled.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Our state's (MN) youth soccer programs just shifted to full practices and scrimmages. I think that's nuts. No testing, no temperature checks, just go for it. How is this in any way a good idea? I think they were freaking out because when the youth seasons got cancelled lots of kids dropped out (just practices? no games? screw that) and then when they started practicing again with social distancing kids who were left hated it and stopped coming. This feels like a survival reflex from youth soccer that flies in the face of public safety, but apparently they must approval to do this? I'm baffled.

Yeah, down here in the southern suburbs, I've been out a few times the last couple days. I've been by three parks, where youth programs were in full swing, with several dozen kids running around, and teen city workers sitting watching them, with not a mask in sight. There was a five-on-five full-court basketball game going on the other day with 10 middle schoolers running back and forth, and a few more waiting to come in, and a group of parents just sitting there talking, with no masks. People have just given up on caring.

I'll just say that, as somebody whose wife had open-heart surgery two years ago to resolve symptoms of a congenital heart defect but who still has heart disease and has EXTREMELY vivid memories of sitting in the ICU counting the number of tubes and wires poked into her body (14, in case you're wondering), for anybody who says they're not going to wear a mask because it's not their concern, well, I'd like you to quite non-pleasantly go f*ck yourself forever.

Yeah I saw a bunch of guys playing basketball at the nearby park yesterday as I went to get our curbside takeout. Shirts and skins, lots of germ sharing, looked awful.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I'll just say that, as somebody whose wife had open-heart surgery two years ago to resolve symptoms of a congenital heart defect but who still has heart disease and has EXTREMELY vivid memories of sitting in the ICU counting the number of tubes and wires poked into her body (14, in case you're wondering), for anybody who says they're not going to wear a mask because it's not their concern, well, I'd like you to quite non-pleasantly go f*ck yourself forever.

That's the reason why I'm baffled. We know the risks to kids is minimal, but those kids are connected to grandparents and family members with health conditions that would make Coronavirus a life-threatening problem.

I just read the state's guidance and reasoning on returning to sports. While I get their reasoning for it, I think they are omitting the second level to the danger. I also feel like things are too binary now. There are dozens of sports that kids could do that don't require bumping and smashing into each other. But we seem to have turned them all on at once.

Prederick wrote:

I really think ya'll are underestimating A.) How loud the money talks and B.) How much louder the "It's only a 1% death rate and old people should just stay home" contingent is. College FB is up in the air, but the pro leagues? I'd bet a whole paycheck right now, they're gonna play.

Zeke from the Cowboys had it and is already talking about how important safety is.

If I'm an elite athlete, no way am I risking my future big paychecks.

I won't take your bet, but let's revisit end of July and see where the NFL season is at? I'll bet MLB isn't playing any games as of 7/25/20.

Top_Shelf wrote:
Prederick wrote:

I really think ya'll are underestimating A.) How loud the money talks and B.) How much louder the "It's only a 1% death rate and old people should just stay home" contingent is. College FB is up in the air, but the pro leagues? I'd bet a whole paycheck right now, they're gonna play.

Zeke from the Cowboys had it and is already talking about how important safety is.

If I'm an elite athlete, no way am I risking my future big paychecks.

I won't take your bet, but let's revisit end of July and see where the NFL season is at? I'll bet MLB isn't playing any games as of 7/25/20.

I think baseball starts their games, and wouldn't be surprised if other sports do too, but I'd be shocked it anyone finishes their season. As soon as a team has to forfeit games due to lack of players, that'll be it.

The NHL's moved on from Vancouver, trying to get Toronto or Edmonton to meet their demands.

Dr. Henry is, of course, spot on.

"We are doing very well. We have a good balance. But under no circumstances was I going to compromise in any way the health of people here in British Columbia, and we made that very clear."

I hope that poisons the well for the federal and other provincial governments granting concessions to the NHL and the Blue Jays (who want to play their home games at Skydome with all the border-crossing that would go with it).

Good. If the NHL refuses to acquiesce to the best in the continent in handling this, then they can get lost.

billt721 wrote:

I think baseball starts their games, and wouldn't be surprised if other sports do too, but I'd be shocked it anyone finishes their season. As soon as a team has to forfeit games due to lack of players, that'll be it.

The Globe & Mail just had a long article about many (but not all) the failures in Canada to control the virus. One of the experts quoted expects the said we should be preparing for the Second Wave to be 10 times worse.

So you're probably right about starting up and having to stop.

Ten times worse?

So, instead of 120,000 dead to date, (USA), we should expect 1.2 million?

Experts have been predicting from the beginning something around 1.5 million deaths, so yeah.

LeBatard went off on this today and how the sports industrial complex is teetering if there is no football.

ESPN makes so much money off college football that if those games don't happen and the ad money is not there, the talent (top earners are already on a 15% pay cut the last 3mo) will start getting cut. Leaving aside the ethics of grown adults making mid-6 and 7 figure salaries on the backs of indentured servants, there is going to be a big financial impact if the only sports for the next year in this country are:

Motorsports
Combat sports (UFC, boxing)
Golf (even that can't get its act together because each individual player appears to act like an independent contractor and they're certainly flying like normal, protocols seem lax)

And they can't make up the difference by showing Korean baseball, New Zealand rugby and Serie A.

I don't think sports go away but I'm wondering if there's a permanent 5-15% loss in fandom as folks tune out for a year?

When I tuned out of hockey for a bit I certainly lost interest. Went from a core fan to very casual.

@HowardBeck wrote:

On conference call with reporters, Adam Silver says, "We are left with no choice but to learn to live with this virus. No options are risk-free right now."

He adds, "We have developed a safe and responsible plan" for the restarted season, and that NBA believes personnel will be safer on its campus at Disney than elsewhere.

Again, whole paycheck.

Man.

I feel for these employees.

ESPN wrote:

Following the revelation that multiple co-workers had tested positive for the coronavirus, Texas Rangers employees told ESPN on Friday night that they fear for their health and hope the organization will allow employees to work from home after feeling pressure to come into the office.

Amid the rash of new coronavirus cases in Texas, Rangers employees were told in an organization-wide email Thursday that "several members of our Texas Rangers family have tested positive for the Coronavirus (COVID-19)," according to a copy of the email obtained by ESPN.

The acknowledgment of positive tests came 10 days after the team entered a new phase of its reopening in which employees told ESPN that they were urged to work at Globe Life Field, the team's new $1.2 billion stadium. While there was never an explicit mandate, multiple employees told ESPN their managers said working from home was not an option. Exceptions were made for some employees.

"We are terrified for our safety," said one employee who works for the team and requested anonymity out of fear of repercussions by the organization. "Terrified to share COVID-19, unknowingly, with an older employee, a pregnant co-worker or anyone else who may have some sort of underlying condition. We all knew it would come to this. It was only a matter of time."

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...

Texas gonna Texas

Also, Morehouse has cancelled all fall sports (incl football). D-2 but still.

And, with NY/NJ/CT imposing 14-day quarantines on arrivals from TX, FL, AZ, not sure how the following 17 teams get in to play the Yankees, Mets, NYG, NYJ and Red Bulls, NYFC (once MLS tourney is over in Aug):

Rangers
Astros
Diamondbacks
Rays
Marlins
Jags
Bucs
Dolphins
Quakes
LAFC
Galaxy
Dynamo
FC Dallas
Orlando FC
Inter Miami
Cowboys
Texans

ETA: Whoops! Didn't look up NFL schedule to see if some of these divisions are even scheduled to go to NFC/AFC East. Obviously MIA and DAL have 1x scheduled in NY but not going to look up who the South and West are scheduled to play this year.

And if CA gets added to their list we're up to 28!
Giants
LAD
LAA
Padres
OAK
Quakes
LAFC
Galaxy
LAR
Chargers
Jimmy G and The Jimmy G Singers Presents The Jimmy G Show

I know I'm being a downer here. Just compiling this makes me feel bad.

On the plus side, IF things can get handled safely, the MLS tourney really does sound like an exciting television event. Tournament sports during the weekday are some of my favorite things, so here's hoping things improve!

And, Buster Olney is now on record stating there is 0% chance the MLB season finishes and, in his opinion, only a 5% chance actual games get started.

Top_Shelf wrote:

And, Buster Olney is now on record stating there is 0% chance the MLB season finishes and, in his opinion, only a 5% chance actual games get started.

And that's baseball, which is clearly the major sport with by far the least physical contact between players.

Hey, maybe cancellation of sports leagues will make people smart enough to wear frickin' masks when they go outside.

MLB is also making no public attempts at playing in any sort of bubble.