Sports Impact of Coronavirus COVID19

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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Mar 24, 2008
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We've, not surprisingly started, to hit a critical mass of how sports are getting impacted by the coronavirus. I thought it makes sense to have a single place to document and discuss the latest news and impact. (Mods: as always feel free to close if you think this is best served in the more general coronavirus thread, but I think more threads are better, especially one dedicated to sports on a sports-centric message board.)

Just some of the examples so far:

RPI/Harvard ECAC Hockey Playoff Game will be played in empty arena because of COVID19 case in Albany.

Ivy league has cancelled their conference tournament. Yale will go to NCAA tournament as regular season champion.

Start of the Japanese baseball season has been postponed due to the coronavirus. No date has been given yet. I believe the Korean league has done the same.

The Japanese marathon was run only with elite runners a week ago.

San Jose Sharks mulling options after Santa Clara County bans gatherings of >1,000 people for the rest of the month.

All Italian Sports suspended indefinitely.

I'm sure I've missed a bunch of other news articles, so feel free to post those or new stories.

Major upcoming events that I expect to be impacted fairly soon:
  • March Madness tournament starts next Thursday.
  • NBA, NHL, MLS are all currently in season in the US and the European Soccer leagues are in season as well.
  • MLB opening day is March 26th.
  • The Masters is April 9th-12th.
  • The Boston Marathon is April 20th.
  • The Kentucky Derby is May 2nd.
  • The 2020 Euro Cup is scheduled to run from June 12th to July 12th in 12 cities across Italy with 24 teams.
  • The 2020 Olympics run from July 24th - August 9th in Tokyo. (see whole other thread on that)
 

jsinger121

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Jul 25, 2005
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Cornell also said no to fans this weekend in their series against Princeton and Quinnipiac might be considering the same against Yale.
 

cshea

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Mugsy's Jock

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We've scheduled our fantasy baseball draft for Final Four weekend in Atlanta this year, as someone in our league has a line on tickets. Would feel kind of dumb to all go to Atlanta and get shut out of the arena.

Surprised I haven't heard anything at all about MLB teams forgoing live crowds at their games. [More likely, I've just missed it.]. I mean, I sure as hope it doesn't come to that... but if you hear murmurs about the NBA playoffs and Olympics going crowd-free in the summer, you'd guess you'd have heard some contingency work or something about MLB games in April.
 

RedOctober3829

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Also, in addition to the men's and women's basketball tournaments being cancelled, the Ivy League also announced that all out of season teams' practices and competitions are cancelled. So that means no spring seasons for football, soccer, etc.
 

21st Century Sox

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CIAC (CT HS sports org) just cancelled all Winter Tournaments, Boys and Girls Basketball (many played opening rounds last night) Ice Hockey, and all other Winter sports tournaments.
 

Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat

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ObstructedView

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My step-bro runs Boston every year. Very interested to see how this plays out; I could see them limiting it to elite runners as in Tokyo, which would obviously result in a very different event.
 

Ale Xander

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if the Marathon is canceled, do they move the Red Sox game to a more "conventional" time?
 

StuckOnYouk

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As these decisions continue to be copied elsewhere, how long are bans like these going to continue? Until there is a vaccine? I thought I heard the other day on TV with someone with a nice title that it could take up to a year perhaps. But its possible I may have misheard
 

Doug Beerabelli

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CIAC (CT HS sports org) just cancelled all Winter Tournaments, Boys and Girls Basketball (many played opening rounds last night) Ice Hockey, and all other Winter sports tournaments.
Yep. Lots of unhappy people in regard to this decision. The play to empty arena option wasn’t an option for the CIAC, I guess Meanwhile, these athletes continue to go to school with hundred if not thousands of other people in close quarters, most of them passing the hall every hour or so.
 

HomeRunBaker

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Jan 15, 2004
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Look at what has been cancelled in the past 3 days.

Then look at this trajectory and project it out 7-10 days.

https://coronavirus.1point3acres.com/en?fbclid=IwAR1xijLmo251TxeJMXZQXdKlbAekO6GBQc-dObv_N70p0RsRQZ7r-TOJ59U
I don't think we've seen the tip of the iceberg as to how this virus is going to affect sporting events in this country. By next week you will probably see March Madness beginning with no fans in the stands, followed by same with the NBA, NHL, and maybe MLB (being outdoors may spare them). Once the first casino in this country shuts its doors it will open a floodgate of others to follow......Vegas may be a ghost town for awhile as the casino district was in Macau last month when they were closed for two weeks.
 

ObstructedView

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The Ivy League took a lot of heat from the talking heads last night for canceling its hoops tourney, but something tells me other events will follow. I keep vacillating between feeling like things are being overblown to fearing that the country as a whole is whistling past the graveyard. I'm normally a life-goes-on person, but this situation is unique and I'm not sure many people realize how these things work -- including the fact that just because you may not be in a high-risk demographic doesn't mean you can't be part of the problem. We're just now starting to see the results of increased testing, and may be about to discover that things are a lot worse than they seem on the surface. This is going to be an interesting test of our society's capacity for sacrifice, and that includes those who have huge financial incentives to keep these big sports events on.
 

BrazilianSoxFan

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https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/mar/11/arsenal-self-isolation-postpone-game-manchester-city-premier-league-coronavirus-covid-19
Arsenal’s visit to Manchester City on Wednesday night has been postponed by the Premier League as a “precautionary measure” in the first example of an English fixture being affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
The decision was taken late on Tuesday after a small number of Arsenal players, along with four of the club’s staff, were confirmed to have been in close proximity to the Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis – who said yesterday that he had contracted the virus – when the sides met in London 13 days ago.
The players and staff are now in self-isolation and, while nobody around Arsenal is showing any symptoms of Covid-19, both they and City took medical advice before coming to the conclusion that, with the league’s agreement, the match should not go ahead.
 

wade boggs chicken dinner

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The Ivy League took a lot of heat from the talking heads last night for canceling its hoops tourney, but something tells me other events will follow. I keep vacillating between feeling like things are being overblown to fearing that the country as a whole is whistling past the graveyard. I'm normally a life-goes-on person, but this situation is unique and I'm not sure many people realize how these things work -- including the fact that just because you may not be in a high-risk demographic doesn't mean you can't be part of the problem. We're just now starting to see the results of increased testing, and may be about to discover that things are a lot worse than they seem on the surface. This is going to be an interesting test of our society's capacity for sacrifice, and that includes those who have huge financial incentives to keep these big sports events on.
Sorry to keep repeating myself and I don't mean to single you out but we're really not in the unknown anymore. We know the playbook on how to deal with this. This is no longer about whether you or I or our family member is going to get sick. That's not the problem. The problem is that the majority of people have really mild symptoms (81%) and it's really contagious and the people who don't have mild symptoms, they get pretty sick and threaten medical infrastructure.

In other words, it has to do with flattening the curve.

28893

The best thing people can do is stay away from other people. I don't mean locking oneself in an apartment but there are reasonable steps we all can take to try to prevent getting it and spreading it - hygiene and social distancing will go a long way to flattening the curve.
 

Saints Rest

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On a smaller level (literally), my kids' elementary school (CT) has stated that spectators will not be allowed to watch.

However, my son's travel soccer team, which plays indoors for the winter, had this announcement from its parent organization earlier this week:
EDP Soccer strongly recommends the following precautionary guidelines be followed by your players and families:
  • Wash hands frequently with soap and water (at least 30 seconds) especially after going to the bathroom; before eating; and after blowing the nose, coughing, or sneezing.
  • Avoid touching the mouth, eyes or nose with hands.
  • Cover coughs and sneezes with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
  • Clean up team and training areas after every use (e.g. throw used water bottles in the trash).
  • Use alcohol-based sanitizers (60% alcohol) in addition to frequent hand washing.
  • Feel free to bring sanitizing products. Carry small bottles of alcohol-based sanitizers to use when hand-washing facilities are unavailable.
  • Keep hydrated.
  • Do not share water bottles or food.
  • No pre, during, or post-game handshakes with opposing team members or game officials.
  • International team walkouts and hand-in-hand/arm-in-arm team huddles are not recommended.
  • If anyone associated with a team (coach, player, family member) feels ill prior to a scheduled event, please have them stay home and not attend the event in order to reduce risk to others.
  • If anyone associated with a team (coach, player, family member) becomes ill during an event and has symptoms such as coughing, fever, or general malaise, please contact a medical professional; to reduce exposure, consider self-isolation until evaluated by medical personnel; immediately exit the facility; do not come into personal contact with other participants.
  • Coaches and team managers: Please be sure to have updated medical information and contact information for all minors' parents or guardians that may not be present.
 

Time to Mo Vaughn

RIP Dernell
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Mar 24, 2008
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findguapo

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It is really hitting close to home now -- my 6 year old sons basketball league has cancelled post game handshakes for the rest of the season.
 

luckiestman

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If a lot of colleges cancel sports going on now, will the kids get an extra year of eligibility.

small potatoes in the big picture but I feel bad for my students who are losing their season.