At first, sports returned in dribs and drabs: UFC, NASCAR, Germany’s Bundesliga. Soon, the plan goes, they’ll be back en masse. Disrupted and displaced by the coronavirus, the NBA and NHL want to stage their playoffs through the summer at centralized sites. Shortened MLB and MLS seasons could follow, with the NFL and college football campaigns possibly beginning on schedule after that. The Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and the National Women’s Soccer League have already set June restart dates. There’s money to salvage, fans to entertain, a gloss of normalcy to project.
That crowds won’t attend games for a while is a given, but much is left to finalize before more of these comeback proposals become reality. What specific health and safety regulations will leagues enact? In which hub cities will the NHL set up shop? Can MLB’s players and owners even hope to solve their compensation dispute?
Beyond logistics, though, a deeper dilemma shadows the whole exercise. Is it ethical for team sports to resume during a pandemic?
The implications of this question are myriad and serious. To return in the COVID-19 era, leagues need an abundance of tests and the willingness to keep playing through positive cases. …read more