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

With baseball gearing up with a plan to play in home stadiums -- thus, lots of flights -- I keep thinking about Dallas FC. Maybe I got this wrong, but it seems that last Saturday, just before it flew to the MLS bubble in Orlando, the entire traveling party tested negative. And 24 hours later, there were 10 positives. That's a red flag to me.

 

Family. Relationships. Society. Safety. Food. Water. Medicine. Housing. Transportion. Technology. Energy. Communication.

That's for starters. I don't even know how many more items are on my list before I even consider "watching or playing sports" as a need.

 

And there's protocols in the NBA bubble. Why can't the NBA come back, again?

 

who's stopping them?

 

Although it's been said, many times, many ways, the same folks craving freedom and riblets will have the loudest voices of protest if the NFL or college football seasons are delayed or axed.

 

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So you’re OK with them returning?

 

Without fans? In the Disney Bubble?

of course

if they can figure out a way to do it while keeping the staff and the officials and the players "safe."

and there has to be some sort of agreement on the part of the league and the players and the state and local health authorities what constitutes "safe."

 

I am OK with TRYING to return. I just hope those involved can tell if/when the virus has so diluted the product they're trying to produce that they're damaging their own brands to little purpose.

 

Do you need them to return for your livelihood or because it helps your fee-fees?

There was a piece in The Atlantic last week about how inured people are becoming to mounting deaths.

Almost enough to demand there be football, I would say.

 

That's the tricky part.

What's the trigger number to shut down? 10 cases? 10% of staff infected but asymptomatic? 2 hospitalizations? 20?

That calculus is the real puzzle.

 

It's not just who gets sick, it's how that affects the mindset of players who aren't. It might not take that much to convince a majority of players on an NBA, NHL or MLB team that it's unsafe for them to continue. So they stop. How does a league proceed if it's losing TEAMS on a regular basis?

 

Players opting out short circuits the whole enterprise.