Since all sports leagues shut down in early March, there has been much anticipation surrounding when they will restart. Sports fans are checking every alert on their phone, hoping it says, ”NBA season starting June 1” and not ”NBA season canceled for the rest of the year.” Here are the updates on each of the major sports leagues.
NBA: The NBA season ended with less than 15 games left in the season. With so little of the season remaining, hope of resuming the season has faded. With cases of the novel coronavirus still high in some states such as New York, where two teams are located, restarting the season in the usual cities is unlikely. Since 11 NBA teams share a stadium with NHL teams, the process of rescheduling the remaining games is nearly impossible. Right now, the NBA is planning to resume the NBA season in late July at the Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. With Florida reopening the stores and beaches, and Disney World also reopening in July, this is an ideal plan.
NFL: The NFL season is supposed to start in September with the Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, facing off against the Texans. But with NFL training camps canceled due to the virus, whether the season will start on time is unclear. Football is a contact sport, so the spreading of viruses is likely. There is no news from the commissioner that the season is unlikely to start on time. They released the NFL schedule early so they have more time to change it if the coronavirus continues to spread.
NHL: The NHL also canceled the season with little of the regular season left to play. With COVID-19 still spreading in some cities, resuming play in the regular season is not possible. A 24-team, conference based format to return to play was approved by both the NFL and NHLPA. They are hoping to return to play at a couple of arenas, since cities like New York can't reopen their stadiums due to the amount of cases in the state. It will most likely be Western Conference teams that host the games. These are going to be called “hub cities.”
MLB: The Opening Day for the MLB was supposed to be March 26, but with this date being so close to when the COVID-19 outbreak happened in the U.S., the MLB had the least time to prepare and is now in a major pickle. The MLB has proposed pay cuts for the players, but this was not well received. The players are hoping to resume the season on July 4 with no fans, but the MLBPA has not agreed to a deal with the league. The MLB has already lost millions of dollars due to missing two months of the season. With time running out until it's too late to begin the season, can the owners and players agree on a deal in the next week, or will “America’s Pastime” be forgotten in the past?