Arena Sports and Coronavirus (aka the Rudy Gobert Appreciation Thread)

Oh god.

 

Here in the UK the Grand National is one of the big racing events of the year. (Think Kentucky Derby but with jumps). This year's has been cancelled, but next Saturday at 5PM ITV1 will present a Virtual Grand National. More details from the Racing Post.

 

Olympics will officially be from the end of July to the first week of August next year. Can't wait.

 

Byran Curtis of the Ringer on the snowball impact of Coronovirus on sports reporting, sports websites, and more.

Really good read. I know I take for granted that things like Fan Graphs will just be there tomorrow when I click on them, and that when baseball returns, I can compare Lindor and Bieber to historical seasons. but ... that might not be our reality.

 

Well, then.

 

Yeah, I pointed this out -- it's almost certainly less than what they would have made if Wimbledon happened, but now they've revenued $107 million dollars (for free) because of good planning.

 

Who knew Wimbledon were the most prepared for a pandemic of any world organization.

 

The British Open has similar insurance. Must be something in the water across the pond. Which is why when the other three Golf Majors got postponed, the British Open got cancelled - postponing would mean no insurance money.

 

This is my favorite new sport.

 

Wanna see Mahomes vs. Brady on Madden. Something tells me the young guy would have it

 

A sobering and detailed look at why we won't have sports any time soon.

 

I've already come to terms with the fact that the Buckeyes have an all-time Heisman-level QB and the Bengals are about to draft the best QB college season ever and none of it will likely matter this year.

Hoping that testing grows exponentially, b/c if you can have an immediate way to determine if someone has it (or, a step further, is immune) then conceivably you could allow some gathering with constant screening.

The WWE is still operating (b/c Vince is a maniac) and so far hasn't had any complications with talent/broadcasters/production staff. With better testing, that kind of a skeleton crew would seem to work with something like the NBA, especially if they just locked down the entire area.

 

Another year to wait to see the Lakers back in the playoffs, and Mookie would have been one hell of a niiiiice Dodger... and the All Star Game, well, would have been some fun.

 

My brother responded to this by saying "crossing my fingers for football," and then wrote it again after I mentioned that if you read the article, you'll see why that that's not going to happen. It's like some people can't process or accept that team sports aren't coming back anytime soon.

 

Tour de France another casualty of the Coronavirus.

 

Absolutely we should have football, just without fans. I'm willing to give up going to Arrowhead for the year as long as I still get to see the Chiefs play

 

Football seems like the least likely to return, IMO.

You have larger rosters, which means more people under quarantine. Which means more support staff needed. Which means greater risk of quarantine being impeded.

Plus, you have the higher risk of injury in American football, which means tying up hospital resources, EMTs, etc.

Baseball, with the minimal person-to-person contact and basketball, with the small roster sizes seem much more likely to me.

 

It's been rescheduled to start on August 29th and last until September 20th, which will also be the first day of the Mondials. The Vuelta will be postponed.

Note that Le Tour is the make-or-break event for many cycling teams - it's the only yearly sporting event that gets watched at some point by an audience of a billion people across the planet. If it can happen but only by cancelling both the Vuelta and the Giro, it's what will happen.

 

Ah, didn't have a reschedule date set when I saw the news yesterday.