Coronavirus: What Will Sports In America Look Like When They Return From COVID-19 Pandemic?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Just about everyone would love to have sports back, and one day they will return. But how much different will they look and what about the stadiums?
As we continue to monitor the latest with COVID-19, we await the restart of our favorite sports. Whether it be the beginning of the Major League Baseball season or the completion of the NHL and
NBA schedules, everything remains a question mark. So how do we get back to playing ball?
"Best case world, I think is spring training would start in about a month somewhere, would last for about three weeks and then they would start up in July and play about 100 games," The Athletic's Jayson Stark said. "This is like Doug Pederson calling a play and if the receiver's covered, then you've got option B, option C, option D, that's baseball right now. They've got so many options on the table."
MLB has thrown around a number of different scenarios, including building hubs in Arizona, Florida, or Texas that would house all teams, according to reports.
The NBA threw around ideas like finishing up in Las Vegas or Disney World.
The NHL issued a statement last week saying that if conditions continue to trend favorably, they could have small group activities for each team later this month.
Some good news across the world. The Korean Baseball Organization had its opening day on Tuesday. But let's say sports do make a return in the U.S., how will it look?
Right now, this is the likeliest scenario.
You're almost certainly going to see an empty baseball stadium. Will that mean games in
Philadelphia, or in a centralized location elsewhere? Time will tell.
But it does sound like MLB is going to do everything possible to make sure there is some sort of schedule in 2020.
Will we ever see a sporting event in person again?
With the NFL season about four months away, could there be extreme social distancing guidelines? Perhaps just a few thousand people are allowed to enter at a time. There are lots of questions about how many people per section, plus bathroom and concession use. We are truly in uncharted territory.
How about further down the road? Perhaps we get closer to normal, albeit not close to sellout crowds.
This appears to be a best-case scenario. Maybe half the capacity but with people spaced out to maintain proper social distancing.
But, will there be masks involved? How bout temperature checks?
Sounds like everything would be on the table for all leagues and they are still monitoring the situation closely.
Let's just hope there are sports soon and that it's done in a safe way. But as of right now, there is still no definitive timetable for any live sporting events.
