Bursting the Bubble: Why Sports Aren't Coming Back Soon

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Not sure if any sports will be played at all this year. The head of the CDC just said on GMA that we expect to deal with another outbreak of COVID-19 this fall. I hope he's wrong but this may in fact be a seasonal thing, like the flu.
 
To illustrate how starved people are for sports news, I just heard a radio announcer report professional baseball scores from a league in Taiwan.

The below link is to a story that indicates that Taiwan baseball will begin broadcasts in English.

https://focustaiwan.tw/sports/202004140026

Taiwan's pro baseball league to broadcast games in English
Taiwan's baseball season, the only one scheduled anywhere in the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, will include English broadcasts from Wednesday to showcase Taiwan baseball to a wider audience, as mentioned on the official twitter page of Eleven Sports sports channel.
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..... and the games in Taiwan will be played with images of cardboard cutouts, mannequins and drum-playing robots filling the stands. (hey, you can't make this stuff up !)

https://nypost.com/2020/04/13/baseb...aiwan-with-robot-and-mannequin-fans-in-seats/

Baseball league restarts in Taiwan with robot and mannequin ‘fans’ in seats
These baseball fans are real phonies.

Bizarre images show cardboard cutouts, mannequins and drum-playing robots filling the stands at Taiwan’s Taoyuan Baseball Stadium instead of real fans when the Chinese Professional Baseball League restarted its season Sunday after a month-long coronavirus lockout.

The faux-fans were dolled up in real hats and shirts of the home team the Rakuten Monkeys, some pointing toward the field and others holding signs over their heads — via zip ties around their plastic wrists.
 
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The only 'sport" that continues to operate is professional wrestling. I don't know what to make of it, other than it's easier to manage an activity with maybe 100 performers on the entire roster than sports with multiple teams, venues, and athletes. I don't see any return to normalcy for a year to 18 months. No vaccine, no proven treatment means no chance for life as we knew it.
 
NFL will open on time and require all fans to wear face masks. They will sell face masks with team logo designs and make a killing!!
 
[quote="Mean Gene" post=385164]NFL will open on time and require all fans to wear face masks. They will sell face masks with team logo designs and make a killing!![/quote]

That could work, provided the team only sells every 3rd seat.
 
[quote="Jack Williams" post=385144]football will start on time. im calling it now[/quote]

That's a long shot but one thing for sure is there will not be fans.
 
Well, it's great that Dr Fauci thinks sports can resume without crowds.

But I'm not sure that's going to be very satisfying. We saw a half game with St John's without a crowd. It was hard for me to get very excited. I was thankful to see St John's ahead. It was just so quiet and uneventful when someone scored. This was a SEC tournament game. I doubt that I'd watch a regular season game without any crowd reaction. It would be a bit boring?
[URL]https://www.cbssports.com/gene...ld-return-this-summer-without-fans-in-venues/[/URL]
Most leagues have been on pause since mid-March, but the nation's top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci does believe that professional sports could return this summer under two conditions: if fans aren't in attendance and if players are kept in hotels to protect their health.

"There's a way of doing that," Fauci told Snapchat's Peter Hamby during an interview on Tuesday. "Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled... Have them tested every single week and make sure they don't wind up infecting each other or their family, and just let them play the season out
 
Rumor has it that ML Baseball Channel will broadcast Strato-O-Matic Baseball with artificial crowd noise, etc like Les Keiter on WINS in late 1950's. Football, both Pro and College, also come in Strat-O-Matic versions so ESPN will broadcast those. :) :). Loved playing Strat-O-Matic and last year bought one at an auction from the late 1970's.
 
[quote="BrooklynRed" post=385176]Rumor has it that ML Baseball Channel will broadcast Strato-O-Matic Baseball with artificial crowd noise, etc like Les Keiter on WINS in late 1950's. Football, both Pro and College, also come in Strat-O-Matic versions so ESPN will broadcast those. :) :). Loved playing Strat-O-Matic and last year bought one at an auction from the late 1970's.[/quote]

How does Strat-O-Matic compare to APBA Baseball? I bought an APBA set in great condition on E Bay, with the player cards from the 60s. They even threw in cards for the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.
 
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Just read an article where college administrators stated that there will not be any collegiate sports until students are able to attend classes on campus. It also stated that some schools are looking at January, 2021 to allow students back on campus. If this holds true, there will not be any fall and winter sports next year causing a myriad of problems.

If there aren't any college sports during the first semester next year, what happens to those seniors and how will it affect scholarships. If the seniors are granted an extra year of eligibility, how does it affect commitments for the class of 2021. Are schools going to be able to honor those commitments. If so, how do you manage a basketball team that may have 17 scholarship players.

It has also been stated that without a vaccine, no one will be able to watch Pro sports. This talk about bringing all the athletes involved to a particular location and keeping them secluded while they play their games is non sensical. Grown men or women are not going to consent to spending six months away from their families and loved ones.

The next six months should be very interesting.
 
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[quote="panther2" post=385195]

The next six months should be very interesting.[/quote]

Or very boring, depending on how you look at it.
 
[quote="panther2" post=385195]Just read an article where college administrators stated that there will not be any collegiate sports until students are able to attend classes on campus. It also stated that some schools are looking at January, 2021 to allow students back on campus. If this holds true, there will not be any fall and winter sports next year causing a myriad of problems.

If there aren't any college sports during the first semester next year, what happens to those seniors and how will it affect scholarships. If the seniors are granted an extra year of eligibility, how does it affect commitments for the class of 2021. Are schools going to be able to honor those commitments. If so, how do you manage a basketball team that may have 17 scholarship players.

It has also been stated that without a vaccine, no one will be able to watch Pro sports. This talk about bringing all the athletes involved to a particular location and keeping them secluded while they play their games is non sensical. Grown men or women are not going to consent to spending six months away from their families and loved ones.

The next six months should be very interesting.[/quote]

Grown men and women with military careers have been living their lives in military bases around the world away from their families at a fraction of the salary of "athletes" who are the most entitled human beings on the planet. As long as they are paid their lucrative salaries they will tow the party line wherever the money is. If places like China , Russia or Mongolia can pay them they will leave in a New York minute. They did before the virus and they will do now.

As for being cleared to physically attend games I venture to guess that technology will be integrated with medical data to provide clearance certificates for citizens if no vaccine is developed within 12 months. In addition to checking 70 year olds for weapons or bombs the. Gestapo security forces at Carnesecca arena will check your clearance. Frankly I was always more worried about sitting next to infected fan carrying some virus than being blown up by Mrs. O'Reilly in Section 8.
As for managing scholarships, the NCAA will amend policies to prevent their cash cows in colleges from abandoning them and just forming a new body of governance.
Unlike the rest of the civilized world the United States has made collegiate sports like football and basketball unpaid minor leagues for professional sports franchises where universities make millions off the backs of young athletes who receive zero from those professional franchises that lock them out of lucrative sports contracts. There is something morally wrong with depriving a young man or woman a livelihood because players unions who should have no say in the right of employment have their own monetary self interest in mind rather than dealing with competition for their jobs.
I think young people under 30 will develop herd immunity rather quickly once they get back into the herd regardless of vaccine. It is the older folks that may need longer quarantine and who would be wise to avoid large gatherings until the vaccine is as common as the flu vaccine. Without a vaccine daily life as we know it will be changed but medicines and early intervention will eventually help us live a new normal life.
As for redmen fans like you, me and thousands of others over 65, sitting in a sardine can like Carnesecca arena may become a thing of the past.
 
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Here are some recent scores for the professional baseball fans from the Taiwan league

Chinatrust Brothers 6
Fubon Guardians 7

Rakuten Monkeys 9
Uni Lions 8

Standings
1sr Fubon Guargians
2nd Rakuten Monkeys
3rd Uni Lions
4th Chinatrust Brothers
 
[quote="Ray Morgan" post=385186][quote="BrooklynRed" post=385176]Rumor has it that ML Baseball Channel will broadcast Strato-O-Matic Baseball with artificial crowd noise, etc like Les Keiter on WINS in late 1950's. Football, both Pro and College, also come in Strat-O-Matic versions so ESPN will broadcast those. :) :). Loved playing Strat-O-Matic and last year bought one at an auction from the late 1970's.[/quote]

How does Strat-O-Matic compare to APBA Baseball? I bought an APBA set in great condition on E Bay, with the player cards from the 60s. They even threw in cards for the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers.[/quote]

Ray, they're similar. My 64 year old cousin still plays Strat-O-Matic once a week with his next door neighbor. They've been playing for more than 20 years.

I was an APBA guy. I started playing in the early 1960's and still have the set. Brought me many hours of entertainment.
 
In light of the anticipated loss of revenue, several conferences have appealed to the NCAA to relax the rules to retain Division I status. They have petitioned for relief in such areas as the minimum number of D-1 sports they must offer (currently 16), the number of athletic scholarships they must offer, minimum game attendance requirements, etc.

The longer this goes on, the more difficult it will be for colleges to be able to offer the athletic programs currently in place once the pandemic is over. It is possible that college sports may no longer be what we have been used to since we were kids.
 
Lets say hypothetically they had hoops season without fans. Are we still obligated to play at MSG for the season ? Holy cow that would cost a lot unless we had some sort of funky insurance
 
[quote="mjmaherjr" post=385226]Lets say hypothetically they had hoops season without fans. Are we still obligated to play at MSG for the season ? Holy cow that would cost a lot unless we had some sort of funky insurance[/quote]

That's an interesting question. I know the Big East had a savvy insurance policy that protected losses on this year's tournament, but I wonder if individual programs would carry such policies. Perhaps someone is familiar with our contract with MSG?
 
Golf planning to come back, makes sense that’s probably the easiest sport to play while social distancing and with no fans
 
The idea we can’t open back up before a vaccine is just absolutely garbage. Quarantining wasn’t about preventing people from getting COVID, it was about “flattening the curve” so our hospital system wasn’t overwhelmed. 75% of the population was supposed to get COVID regardless which would provide a good start at herd immunity. That herd immunity and curative therapies decrease the need for a long quarantine...as long as we can test for active disease properly. Besides, a vaccine will be out in about 6 months or less for those who don’t have antibodies.

NFL and NCAA football will start on time. MLB will start by July 4th, MLS between mid June and July 4th, NBA May have abbreviated playoffs but will probably just cancel.
 
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