Coronavirus effects major league sports

On Tuesday, March 10, The Ivy League became the first NCAA conference to cancel its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Then, two days later the rest of the college basketball conferences cancelled their tournaments. On the same day, the MLB pushed back opening day, and the NBA suspended its season. Soon after that the NHL season is suspended, and the NCAA tournament is canceled.

Almost two months later and all sports in America are canceled or suspended, and there is no end in sight. Obviously, America isn’t the only country that has its sports affected by the coronavirus. Sports all over the world have canceled or have been postponed. The 2020  summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, has been postponed until 2021. The Premier League and other soccer leagues all over the world have been canceled. Wimbledon has been canceled for the first time since WWll. Every professional sport you can think of is canceled, so what’s next?

There are several plans in place to bring back sports in the coming months with the right precautions, if the coronavirus starts to slow down. The NHL and NBA are trying to shorten the rest of the season, or just skip right to the playoffs when they are able to comeback. Teams planned to reopen practice facilities May 1, but the NBA has pushed back to May 8. The NHL has also planned on opening team ice rinks, but a timetable is not set. The MLB has also had some discussion about starting the baseball season at the beginning of July. While all of this is unclear, and no one knows for sure if sports is even coming back this year, I think it’s safe to say we all need it back.