COVID-19 Sports Update: Clark Optimistic, More from Dr. Fauci, No College Football Without Open Campuses, More

Apr 16, 2020

I don’t think this will be a new morning routine, but there’s a lot to get into from the intersection of the pandemic and sports, so here’s the latest …

The Governor of New York wants to see baseball return, albeit with no fans in the seats, per the many ideas floating out there. But he also passed along part of the equation that I really don’t want to see the political sphere wading into:

Gov. Cuomo said on news tonight he spoke with Jeff Wilpon. Cuomo advocated MLB season take place with no one in stands because it would be good for country to watch. Cuomo said response was that it would require a reduction in player salaries to offset lack of attendance.
— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinMedia) April 16, 2020

To be sure, that’s not Governor Cuomo saying players should take a pay cut if it involves playing in empty parks, but I don’t know that he should be passing that position on publicly. Of COURSE the Mets (and likely many or most or all other teams) would want players to make less if the revenues are going to get crushed this year. But let’s not start putting out government statements about what would be an exceedingly difficult negotiation between the owners and players right now. There isn’t even a “plan” to be discussed yet, much less any kind of specific idea on how to deal with the apportioning of revenues.

Speaking of which, baseball union chief Tony Clark spoke with USA TODAY, expressing optimism that baseball will be played in some form this year, but correctly saying that it is “premature” to talk about revenues and player salaries – “I’m not going to negotiate through the media.”

As for the return to play, Clark focuses on testing and the development of a vaccine. If you had both things, obviously, things could quickly return to something very close to normal. But with a vaccine unlikely until sometime before or during the 2021 season, it’s impossible to imagine full crowds of fans at any games that take place this year. So Clark knows there will be adjustments for the players no matter what, which could, though, open up the door to changes to the sport and more/different ways to engage the fans. I really do think we could see some positive traction on that front eventually, but as Clark rightly reiterates: there are no specific plans yet for a return to action. Just ideas being floated, and a waiting game with the virus and national developments.

The full interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci is now available, expanding on his video comments yesterday about the viability of a quarantine plan for a sport to return (e.g., the Arizona Plan for MLB). It’s a very worthwhile read for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with sports, but also for the broad considerations about our lives through and after this pandemic.

Among Dr. Fauci’s points there of importance about college sports, he says it’s way too early to make any decisions in either direction about whether college campuses can open in the fall: “It is conceivable that we can have a resurgence, a second wave. I would hope that if that happens—and I hope it’s an if, not a when—if that happens, that we would have in place the testing capabilities, the ability to identify, isolate, contact, trace, and have a better feel for the penetrants in the community that we’d be able to respond in a very efficient way. I think to make a decision now about whether you’re going to open schools in the fall is really premature. A lot can happen between now and then.”

And where that all becomes relevant is that you’re going to see many, many schools unwilling to host college sports until and unless the whole campus is open again:

Commissioners tell VP Pence no football before campuses open https://t.co/WT1vGP3373

— WGN TV News (@WGNNews) April 15, 2020

We can all be adults here: college sports – football and basketball, in particular – are huge, huge, huge financial enterprises. Whether you care about them as sports or not doesn’t really matter, because we’ve collectively allowed them to become so dang mission critical to the success of most of the rest of a university with major sports. As we’ve discussed, without college football and basketball generating massive revenue, college baseball programs are going to be in serious jeopardy. We talked about college baseball because that’s our lens, but that’s really not the only aspect of college life and education that would be seriously impacted without revenue produced by football and basketball. So, while I agree with the university’s evaluation of sports returning being tied to the whole campus opening back up – these are not the same thing as professional sports – I do very, very much hope that college sports can be played this fall. Whether I care about those sports or not, a lot is riding on them (and also, a whole lot of people’s lives are profoundly and positively impacted by college sports, so that seems like reason enough to hope for them).

As for the PGA Tour, they’ve confirmed this week’s report and officially announced their planned return in June:

Breaking: The PGA Tour announced plans to return in mid-June with a revised slate of events through Thanksgiving.

The first four events on the revised schedule are planned to be played without spectators. pic.twitter.com/eEWLnEiaSs

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 16, 2020

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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