The Sports Impact of COVID-19

[MJWalker45]

On 11/13/2020 at 9:35 AM, MJWalker45 said:

https://www.news-herald.com/sports/high-school-sports/high-school-football-state-championship-games-moved-to-fortress-obetz-this-year/article_a5c069f8-1d2d-11eb-b84d-1761634cde6b.html

Ohio high school football championships will be played at Obetz. Mainly because it's cheaper to play there than in Canton or at Ohio State. I believe orignally they were considering multiple locations for each championship game. Televising all of the games would have been an issue though. 

https://www.ohsaa.org/news-media/articles/ohsaa-moving-football-championships-to-massillon-washington-this-weekend

With Franklin County banning fans at stadiums, OHSAA moved the state championships to Massillon.

 

The schedule remains the same as announced Wednesday, with games on Friday and Saturday at 1:15 and 6:15 and then Sunday at 12:15 and 5:15. Of note, in the Division II title game, Akron Archbishop Hoban High School has agreed to play Massillon Washington on Massillon’s home field. The OHSAA has now designated Hoban as the home team in the game.

[BBTV]

Lots of teams in the Pennsylvania football playoffs are forfeiting.  In 5A (out of 6A), one of the teams has advanced to the finals by "winning" two forfeits in a row.

 

I feel for the kids and would never tell them that it's meaningless, but it really is - especially since rules are different in different parts of the state.

[Sport]

On 11/17/2020 at 4:47 PM, BBTV said:

How the hell do you house 64 teams in Indianapolis? Nothing against the city, but is it big enough for that?

 

Sure. In a normal final four or super bowl weekend with fans and all media, which Indianapolis is perfectly capable of hosting, you’d have ten of thousands more people descending on the city than whatever number of basketball players and traveling parties would be involved with a 64 team tournament. This is also the city that annually hosts half a million people at that big auto race. Indianapolis could host 64 teams without breaking a sweat.

[AnPheitseog]

Let's say each team brings 35 people.

 

That's 2240 people for just the teams. Add in 10 extras for reporters/refs for each team and it comes to 2880.

 

Not exactly terribly hard to pull off. And that number is EASILY way off and overestimating.

[MJWalker45]

52 minutes ago, _J_ said:

Let's say each team brings 35 people.

 

That's 2240 people for just the teams. Add in 10 extras for reporters/refs for each team and it comes to 2880.

 

Not exactly terribly hard to pull off. And that number is EASILY way off and overestimating.

NCAA will put limits on how many people the teams can bring. It'll probably be less than 35. MLS capped their teams at around 35 for the MLS bubble in Florida. I could see them possibly approving a set number of fans per game as well, but they won't be in charge of finding them rooms 

[sc49erfan15]

On 11/17/2020 at 4:47 PM, BBTV said:

How the hell do you house 64 teams in Indianapolis? Nothing against the city, but is it big enough for that?

 

Indianapolis has manufactured a cottage industry out of hosting large championship events - and not by accident, it was a focal point of their urban planning goals beginning in the 1970s-80s, and a big reason the NCAA moved its headquarters there.

 

Super Bowl XLVI, 7 NCAA Final Fours, FIBA World Championships, more Big Ten football/basketball championship events than I could count, and as someone else mentioned, the Indy 500. Indianapolis Motor Speedway has the highest permanent seating capacity of any sports venue in the world - 250,000 spectators is a "down year."

 

Finding somewhere for 65 basketball teams to stay will be the least of their worries.

[BBTV]

I think it was in this thread that the topic of leagues expanding in order to recoup losses came up.

 

Dave Dombrowski, who was involved in the Nashville Stars MLB effort just abandoned that to join the Phillies.  He was asked several times about why he left that after being so passionate about bringing baseball to Nashville, and he said that after a lot of very recent talks with Manfred and some owners, he was basically told that there's no expansion any time soon, and he said that he realized that the ballpark hurdle was incredibly big.  So while he thinks it's a "when" rather than "if" scenario for Nashville, the "when" is farther out than he had thought, and he couldn't stick with it anymore.

 

EDIT:

He also literally said that while he's not coming into Philadelphia any time soon because nobody is working in the office anyway, he just had COVID and recovered, so "I’ve got antibodies now, so if any of you see me, you don’t have to be afraid you’re going to catch it".  Guess he doesn't realize that said antibodies don't last forever.

 

[Walk-Off]

I am posting this both here and in the thread for the current MLB offseason.

 

Dave Dombrowski to continue Nashville's baseball expansion team effort while in Phillies post

 

https://twitter.com/NashvilleStars/status/1337467270994554884

[GDAWG]

While I think MLB (and the NBA too) will expand to try to get the money lost due to COVID back, MLB may not expand for a while, at least until Oakland and Tampa are resolved, which at this point, will likely take 50 years.

[The_Admiral]

I missed the news, but Pierre Lacroix, the trade-loving GM of the Nordiques--->Avalanche, died of covid two weeks ago.

[MJWalker45]

Duke women's basketball has cancelled their season. 

[TrueYankee26]

Cleveland Browns delay flight after player tests positive for COVID-19

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30600941/cleveland-browns-delay-flight-player-tests-positive-covid-19

[schlim]

Anti-mask Greg Norman hospitalized for covid.

https://sports.yahoo.com/greg-norman-posts-hospital-picture-saying-he-has-covid-19-son-also-tests-positive-150318316.html

[Digby]

Add Spurs/Fulham to the list of EPL games called off this week due to Covid. With the usual fixture congestion already made worse, and presumably the Euros creating a hard wall at the end of the season, this is a real mess in the making for the Prem unless miraculously no more games have to get postponed. But that seems like wishful thinking.

[MJWalker45]

17 hours ago, Digby said:

Add Spurs/Fulham to the list of EPL games called off this week due to Covid. With the usual fixture congestion already made worse, and presumably the Euros creating a hard wall at the end of the season, this is a real mess in the making for the Prem unless miraculously no more games have to get postponed. But that seems like wishful thinking.

I'm waiting for them to say, "Use your academy players we can't skip any more dates".

[Magnus]

1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said:

I'm waiting for them to say, "Use your academy players we can't skip any more dates".

Instead of using a straight points count, they ought to (until COVID is nil) use points percentage, like the NHL did.

[MJWalker45]

12 minutes ago, Magnus said:

Instead of using a straight points count, they ought to (until COVID is nil) use points percentage, like the NHL did.

If the league were further into the year I could see this, but since teams are still waiting to play games from Week1 they'll keep rolling on until they either complete the season or are forced to stop.

[Digby]

here's my thought: play out the first half of the season, at the halfway point split the table so that the top-half teams play amongst each other as do the bottom half teams. Cuts out 25% of the games but we may need that breathing room in the calendar, the way things are going. (Obviously a non-starter due to revenue loss, but here I am trying to put the health of the players and the competitive integrity first.)

[DG_ThenNowForever]

Washington State announced today that the Mariners and Sounders will be allowed up to 25% capacity in their stadiums beginning March 22, so fans will be back in the buildings this season.

 

If feels crazy to even think about going to a sports game in person again, but all of a sudden it's an option. Crazy.

[Digby]

Almost every state is doing it now, even the ones who have generally been very cautious. I might consider going to an outdoor game at 10-20% capacity at this point, but any more seems like pushing it, and I'm happy to push off indoor arenas til I'm vaccinated.