Ryan Dunleavy from The Post provides a status report on how all the different sports handle their COVID-19 comeback planning:
NHL
Current Status: Suspended since March 12, when all teams had 11-14 matches in the regular season.
Restart the situation: The 24 team playoffs are agreed to be grouped in two hub cities, with the top four teams at each conference playing a round-robin game to determine seeding during their “bye”. The next eight in each conference play the best qualifying series of five (the fight is determined) to advance to the first round. The season is over for the bottom-seven team.
Location Status: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh are just a few of the possibilities. Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton also participated but will be discounted if Canada does not change its mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the country.
Schedule: The formal training camp will begin no sooner than July 1, encouraging the start of the tournament until the end of July or early August and delaying the start of the 2020-21 season.
MLB
Current Status: Suspended since March 12, with less than two weeks left in spring training. The regular season will start on March 26.
Restart the situation: MLB proposes an 82-match season and a sliding scale where the players earning the biggest income will lose the highest percentage of their salary. The player association strongly rejects proposals and is expected to reciprocate with more games and no further salary deductions beyond the previously agreed salary. The new schedule needs to be configured by emphasizing division play and limiting travel.
Location Status: For spring training, some teams will return to their normal headquarters in Florida and Arizona, while others will gather in their home gardens. For the regular season, the league hopes to play games in the home garden. In order for the Blue Jays to play at home, Canada must give up quarantine from 14 days. Chances are there will be fanless games – at least at the start.
Schedule: MLB hopes for the resumption of spring training in June – perhaps shortened to two weeks – with the regular season match taking place on the weekend of July 4 and the completion of the playoffs that are almost on time. If the game doesn’t start until August, it means a short schedule or rolling dice against the weather and extending the regular season to October and postseason to November.
The NFL
Current Status: Business as usual. Free agency, schedule design and release all run without interruption.
Restart the situation: Facilities are open to certain employees in the state that are permitted by the government, but coaches and players who are not injured remain prohibited. The coach can return simultaneously next week in the entire league. The team is conducting virtual meetings / exercises for at least another two weeks.
Location Status: The one or two city model does not function for the NFL given the nature of the once a week schedule. Maybe the team could move temporarily, especially for the training camp, if their country’s recovery metrics lag behind the others.
Schedule: The permanent training camp is scheduled to open at the end of July, the first preseason match is August 6 and the regular season opener is September 10. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy did not rule out the possibility of fans in the stands at some point and the dolphins revealed plans (scolded by commissioner Roger Goodell) for limited capacity seating.
The NBA
Current Status: The first league to suspend action – with several teams still on the field – on March 11, after Jazz star Rudy Gobert tested positive for the corona virus. Player salaries starting in May are reduced by 25 percent, with overall deductions still to be determined.
Restart the situation: Commissioner Adam Silver gave many options to the NBA Board of Governors. Voting on Silver’s preferred proposal can take place immediately next week, with July 31 as the target date to proceed. Most likely the rest of the regular season will be removed, with 20-24 teams returning.
Location Status: The league will be concentrated on housing, training and games in one city bubble, which is expected to be in the vast Disney Sports World complex in Orlando.
Schedule: Targeting July returns.
Current Status: Starting late to the regular season (May 15).
Restart the situation: The draft which was held April 17 set a 14-year high for viewers. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert hopes to play a regular season of 36 full matches and told the Washington Post, “We are getting closer to a plan that hasn’t changed much.”
Location Status: Not clear.
Schedule: It is not clear, although the WNBA mandated team cut the roster to 12 on Monday to start paying players. One potential conflict under a long delay is that many WNBA stars play overseas in high-paying leagues during the winter months.
MLS
Current Status: Suspended since March 12, two weeks into the regular season.
Restart the situation: Voluntary group training sessions are ongoing. Starting again in June at the training camp for three to four weeks followed by group stage games and knockout rounds reported on the table.
Location Status: The entire league is headquartered at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando.
Schedule: MLS hopes to squeeze the entire season into 10 weeks, according to ESPN.
PGA / LPGA
Current Status: Both played suspended March 12, after one round was completed at The PGA Players Championship.
Restart the situation: The PGA will return June 11-14 for the Charles Charles Schwab non-challenge at the Colonial Country Club in Ft. Decent, Texas. LPGA will return July 23-26 for the Marathon Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio – but that can be canceled if fans are not permitted to attend.
NWSL
Current Status: Scheduled to be the first league of professional American sports teams to continue, after delaying the start of the regular season from April 18.
Restart the situation: Individual training returned on May 6, small group training was returned this week and team training was in a few days, building until June 27, back in the 25 match tournament.
Location Status: Two sites in Utah.
Schedule: The nine teams will play four matches in the preliminary round and the top eight will advance to the knockout round which culminates in the July 26 final.
Tennis
Current Status: Wimbledon was canceled for the first time in 75 years, the French Open will be contested September 20 to October 4, and US Open officials are working on a potential restart scenario, but no decision has yet been made about the US Open.
Restart the situation: All major tours were suspended until July 31, with more than 40 tournaments canceled from the men’s and women’s calendars combined. The exhibition was fought over in the United States and other parts of the world throughout May.
Boxing
Current Status: The World Boxing Council advises promoters and commissioners to place their boxers and teams in 14 days of isolation before holding a fanless event. The judges will judge the fight by watching from home on television.
Restart the situation: Boxing Top Rank is scheduled to hold a series of fights at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with the first five fight card set for June 9.
UFC
Restart the situation: Nevada ended its combat sports moratorium on Wednesday and the UFC immediately announced Fight Night for Saturday in Las Vegas, followed by the UFC250 on the same site June 6.
Racing car
Restart the situation: NASCAR returns to action May 17 in South Carolina and fanless match schedule in many states in the south through June 21. IndyCar returns June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway, while the Indianapolis 500 is rescheduled for August 23. Formula 1 is eyeing a July 5 return in Austria without fans and a multi-continent schedule until November. NHRA pushes back a tentative restart from June to August in hopes of welcoming fans at 18 drag-racing events through November.
International soccer
The situation restarts: The English Premier League will hold a match on June 17 – more than three months after closing – between Manchester City and Arsenal, and Aston Villa and Sheffield United, before all teams resume the following weekend. All the remaining 92 matches will be fanless and some can be played on neutral sites to avoid groups of fans outside the door. The Bundesliga in Germany continues on May 16, while the Spanish La Liga starts June 11, Serie A in Italy on June 20 and the Champions League has been postponed. Euro 2020 and Copa America have been moved to 2021 (proposed date 11 June-11 July).
College Sports
Current Status: The NCAA extends the recruitment dead period (no face-to-face contact) in all sports until July 31 and allows soccer and male and female basketball athletes to return to campus starting Monday. The conference has handled athletes’ return to campus dates very differently. Neither the NCAA nor the conference will mandate an ordinary uniform start date, subject to state and local governments.
Football / basketball: Steps are underway towards starting on time, and Yahoo Sports reports that the NCAA football watchdog committee can recommend an expanded six-week preseason camp model for approval in mid-June. The main problem: Can athletes practice and play games when the campus is closed to academics? Several major California universities will hold virtual classes until the fall semester. Maybe football will be played in some schools and not in others, even in the same conference because of the spread of geography. Basketball training usually begins in mid-October and will follow in the footsteps of the autumn NCAA sports.
Olympic
Situation restarts: Summer Olympics in Tokyo are postponed and scheduled to open July 23, 2021 and close on August 8.
Canadian Football League
Restart the situation: Several teams have reopened the facility and the rest are expected to follow in the next two weeks. The league announced it would not resume the match before September, if at all, and the Gray Cup championship match would be played at the home of a participant with a superior record.
Horse racing
Restart the situation: Belmont betting will be held June 20 without fans, as the first leg of the Triple Crown instead of the traditional last. Kentucky Derby for September 5 and Preakness Stakes for October 3. The songs are opened in several states and will reopen Monday in New York with Belmont starting on Wednesday. New Jersey officials have not yet said whether the track will open on time for Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 18.
