Will COVID-19 be the needle that finally bursts the sports bubble?

Fair question. I managed to schedule those activities (bike rides, trips to the gym, etc.) around sports. That being said, I'm totally watching crowd-less Bundesliga next Saturday morning. Too lazy to link it, but ESPN.com had a really good story detailing everything that is happening behind the scenes to make the return to sports possible. TLR ... Germany has good testing, we dont.

 

This is possible, but the baseball strike's effect, which was very real, was also in part because fans knew the stoppage was a choice by the owners and players, and resented that choice. The virus shutdown of sports might have an impact like that of World War II, in which all sorts of consumer behavior was strictly regulated, and many millions of fans wound up in uniform. The immediate postwar years of 1946-1950 saw an explosive growth in spectator sports in the US. Baseball attendance and football attendance soared. The NBA was founded. Fans might see following sports as a return to normal life, if not in the stands for awhile, then on TV.

 

Why would they be downsized? You need the distance.

Fewer media in them, yes.

 

That latter part matters.

 

I'm surprised Mike Trout didn't capture Dan's interest.

 

Jury’s out on whether the latter is due to the virus or the layoffs, though.

 

Or whether press boxes are just converted to luxury seating for paying customers.

 

I'm going to throw this in here because it's the active sports thread currently. I saw this yesterday but the Title IX implications I missed. So now sexual assault reports will go to the school Title IX officer instead of being directly reported, and the person who complains gets to choose whether to send the report further up the line. This will inevitably lead to victims being persuaded/pressured not to report Enormous State's football/basketball rapists.

No more mandatory reporting. It isn't difficult to see what will happen after that change.




Title IX no longer requires mandatory reporting in colleges
Under current Title IX guidelines, coaches, athletic directors and other institutional team personnel are mandatory reporters. The same goes for faculty, athletic directors, residential life staff, etc. They are required to report any instance of sexual misconduct or sexual discrimination to the Title IX office or appropriate school officials. There does not need to be a formal complaint to do so.

This stipulation is what has gotten many coaches and institutions into trouble in high-profile cases. Michigan State was fined $4.5 million in September for its mishandling of abuse claims against Larry Nassar.

The new regulations drop the mandatory reporters guidance for coaches and athletic trainers, instead requiring reports to be made to the Title IX coordinator or an official with “authority to institute corrective measures.”

The government changed the rules, it said in the document, to “respect the autonomy of students” to choose whether they want to tell someone with the intent of filing a Title IX report or for another reason. That reason may be "receiving emotional support without desiring to 'officially' report,” per ESPN.

 

The new Jordan Rules.

 

What will happen after that change?

 

Looks to me like it will be easier to sweep things under the rug if there is not a mandatory report to someone outside of the school.

 

The old rules did not require a coach to report to the police. It required a coach to report to the title IX office.

I don’t even think victims advocates would suggest that they want a coach to report it to the police without the victims’ permission because it requires a whole different level of interrogation.