Sports and The Pandemic

The other issue is how will owners, leagues, fans deal with games they lose because half of a team is composed of backup players? Will they start screaming about unfairness? Asterisks by records?

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I’m sure there will be a good number of idiots, but I guess that I tend to believe that enough of a majority of professional athletes will do the right thing

Majority isn't enough, it only takes one guy to infect a whole team. Or two whole teams once they start colliding on the field.

You can't social distance while playing strong safety unless you're Sabby Piscitelli.

*Legion* wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I’m sure there will be a good number of idiots, but I guess that I tend to believe that enough of a majority of professional athletes will do the right thing

Majority isn't enough, it only takes one guy to infect a whole team. Or two whole teams once they start colliding on the field.

You can't social distance while playing strong safety unless you're Sabby Piscitelli.

IMAGE(http://u.cubeupload.com/MilkmanDanimal/drum.gif)

You know, what major sports leagues should is just shut it all down now. Seriously, the country is not close to hosting sports leagues.

Instead, plan for next season.

Pause all contracts and player rights that teams owe. No trades, releases, FA signings. Teams are what they are today.

Cancel league play for 2021. When the pandemic is over, contracts and rosters revert to today.

Prepare now for 6-12 teams leagues. Keep it small, and look for players willing to play under bubble conditions.

Come up with creative ways to pick teams, and play games, not in f*cking Florida, but in an large, open, low populated state with very little spread, like Montana.

Reduce the scope so that there is a path to playing games. Let sports show how we sacrifice, how we mitigate, and how we move on. Unless something drastic happens, trying to play with a full league is going to run into the same problems next year.

Jayhawker wrote:

Pause all contracts and player rights that teams owe. No trades, releases, FA signings. Teams are what they are today.

Cancel league play for 2021. When the pandemic is over, contracts and rosters revert to today.

This would cause a massive fight between the players unions and the leagues.

Well, MLB just canceled the 2020 minor league season.

And yes, it would require the unions and leagues to bargain. But it would be bargaining something rep instead of pretending to start up a season to keep fans subscribed to sports cable networks without games coming.

*Edit because I misread a headline, thinking ML canceled, when it was just the minors.

Do you mean the minor league season? I haven't seen anything that they've canceled the major league season.

*Legion* wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I’m sure there will be a good number of idiots, but I guess that I tend to believe that enough of a majority of professional athletes will do the right thing

Majority isn't enough, it only takes one guy to infect a whole team. Or two whole teams once they start colliding on the field.

So that's what I initially thought as well, and when the Bundesliga had a dozen or so players test positive right before they resumed play, I figured, "Oh, that's the end of that." But from what I understand, the frequency of testing (every two days, constant temperature checks, etc.) allows you to isolate current cases quickly enough so that they don't infect a whole team. They pull positive players out, drive on, and keep testing all the time. So it's a model that is supposed to be able to withstand some degree of positive cases.

I do think that football would be the most likely to fail, however.

Reading some of the remarks by Fauci today, however, makes me wonder if we're quickly heading for another round of shutdowns before these leagues can even test their plans. If we're at 40k per day now of new cases, and potentially heading to 100k cases with a situation "beyond our control", I'd think at some point soon the nation will need to shut down again, taking any and all sports plans with it. Things on a national scale seem to be getting out of hand quickly and yet we seem to be planning for things to go on as if there is no problem.

Bubbles don't help when the players show up sick to begin with.

Texas is so goddamn stupid. For the first time since I left Austin I feel incredibly happy to not be anywhere near there.

That was the "room service" option? What hotel are they staying in? My kid has more appetizing food at his public school program.

It's no coincidence that the two hub cities for the NHL (Edmonton and Toronto) have conservative governments willing to bend over for corporations.

Other than Vancouver, which wouldn't permit no more than 50 positive cases, this is the best case scenario for the NHL. It has the highest likelihood of actually allowing the season to be completed.

Related to my previous post; Blue Jays have received a federal exemption letter and are now allowed to host spring training in the Skydome (aka Rogers Centre). The Rogers Centre has a fully attached hotel allowing them to quarantine and practice at the same time. The letter only details spring training and does not grant an exemption for the season.

Details spoilered:

Spoiler:

The Blue Jays will be limited to the dome and hotel’s boundaries, essentially fulfilling the quarantine requirements there. But there are several steps beyond that, as well, the club is taking to limit risk to the wider community:

• Under MLB’s protocol, every player is required to undergo a diagnostic/PCR and serology/antibody testing, a process currently underway. Blue Jays players and staff will undergo a second PCR test, and only those who have had two negative results will be allowed to travel north;

• Once here, the Blue Jays will have additional PCR testing beyond the every-other-day checks mandated by MLB, and anyone who tests positive will remain in isolated quarantine until he produces two negative tests;

• Essential Toronto-based staff allowed to interact with players and staff will undergo the same testing and quarantine process;

• Their security screening before flying to Toronto via private charter will take place either at TD Ballpark in Dunedin or planeside to limit contact with the general public;

• Private buses conforming to physical distancing and cleaning standards set by the Public Health Agency of Canada will be used for transport from Pearson International Airport;

• To minimize contact with hotel staff and the general public, the Blue Jays will have contactless check-ins and food delivery, as well as private dining;

• The team will create a quarantine zone with a dedicated room block at the hotel that is isolated from the general public;

• Access to Rogers Centre will be limited and the building will be divided into tiered areas to further isolate players and staff, while physical distancing will be promoted through staggered outbreaks, with high-touch areas disinfected hourly.

Edit: Apparently the Blue Jays will not be playing any exhibition games against other teams. All games will be intra-squad games.

All these bubble plans will fall apart if they don't let players have huge stashes of weed.. since that's the first thing thats going to crack.

9 more NBA players test positive on the news tonight.

TheGameguru wrote:

All these bubble plans will fall apart if they don't let players have huge stashes of weed.. since that's the first thing thats going to crack.

Is it legal in FLA?

Amazingly, everyone in the NBA suffers from glaucoma.

Major pro sports should shut down again for the year. I don’t see how we play with the country like this when we shutdown under less serious conditions earlier.

It doesn’t make any sense. The risk is too great. An NBA champion starting multiple backups would definitely be an asterisk. They should do the right, socially responsible thing and call it. We don’t deserve for sports to come back. We didn’t put in the work.

They should shut down and will eventually, but there's billions of dollars on the line here, and they're going to try to play. It'll fail, but they'll try. You'll see the skeletons of practices and preseason games, but literally one infected NFL player is all it takes to wipe out multiple teams.

"Money" is all the sense you need. They're going to flail madly in the hopes they can get them some money, but it's just not going to work in the long run

There are some experts who believe we’re reaching three point where we don’t have enough tests. For that reason alone pro sports shouldn’t proceed.

Still will, though.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcHaKdSXgAAOENu?format=jpg&name=large)

The players may have been exposed to the coronavirus at a bar in Clayton, Missouri, where several members of the team congregated over a week ago, according to Thomas. One player reportedly tested positive just days after that gathering.
Jayhawker wrote:
The players may have been exposed to the coronavirus at a bar in Clayton, Missouri, where several members of the team congregated over a week ago, according to Thomas. One player reportedly tested positive just days after that gathering.

I'm sure glad the federal government is opening the doors for those meatheads. It's as if they haven't screwed up enough during the pandemic.

Hockey players are some of the least likely people to adhere to quarantine/distancing guidelines. They've had two mumps outbreaks in the past 6 years!

This season will be great.

Steelers: "We're happy to have won, but it felt unfair that they had to play so many replacement players."

Jaguars: "Those were our normal players."

On the upside, the COVID outbreak's weeding out a ton of people not suited to live on the moon or Mars.

I'm watching SportsCenter right now while my kids try to get to sleep while the fireworks go crazy in my unincorporated part of the county. Sports highlights are The Basketball Tournament, Cornhole championships and Formula 1 has zero positive tests.

2020!

It's going to be so embarrassing when Europe is not only finishing seasons, but starting new ones, and ours are being put back on hiatus after an aborted attempt at restarting.

Prederick wrote:

It's going to be so embarrassing when Europe is not only finishing seasons, but starting new ones, and ours are being put back on hiatus after an aborted attempt at restarting.

I'm getting use to soccer being back and ya I needed it.

Sure they are getting slammed revenue wise because of gate receipts but it will be interesting to see medium term if the tv eyeballs go up. If they do that's where the real money is anyways.

I remember hearing that the Bundesliga is doing gangbusters RE: TV ratings, I haven't seen any numbers on the PL yet.