How Sports Leagues Should Handle Coronavirus
If I were put in charge of the all the sports leagues in the world, this is what I would do with the Coronavirus situation...
We now know that the NHL, NBA, NCAA conference tournaments, and MLS have all bee suspended until further notice. Here is what I would do if I were in charge of these leagues. Follow me on Twitter @MarkHespen or Instagram @MarkHespen.
1.) NCAA Men's & Women's Basketball: Cancel the tournament's and March madness. These are student athletes and there is no easy way to push the tournaments back to the summer. It's horrendous timing for them, and I feel terrible for the kids who just want to compete and work so hard for this moment but it's not worth the risk. Imagine the headlines if multiple kids get sick with Coronavirus if they play the tournament. As adults we are in charge of protecting those kids, protect them don't be greedy cancel the tournaments.
2.) MLB: Immediately cancel the rest of spring training, and announce that the season will start June 1st. Cancel all the games that teams play before June 1st and make their June 1st games their "Opening day games" and then just play out the rest of the season! Simple fix, if the virus isn't under control by June 1st, push it back to July 1st, if you cant start the season by July 1st, then just cancel the entire season.
3.) NBA: I support their decision to postpone the season. I would then say sometime in June we will pick up the season with the teams final 10 games each.This gives teams trying to make a playoff push a chance with 10 games left to get in, and gives the top teams like the Lakers, Bucks etc. A chance to get back into shape before starting the playoffs. And then carry on as planned, if the virus isn't under control by then start this process in July.
4.) NHL: Same exact thing as the NBA, only with Hockey I would do the last 6 games of the regular season instead of 10 games, start them early June or July, the proceed with the playoffs until they are finished.
5.) NASCAR: Agree that they should run the races without the fans, keep running races without fans until the health officials deem it safe for fans to return sometime this summer.