Despite Trump’s Optimism, Lack of Sports Could Extend Into the Fall

Major League Soccer, which had started its regular season, and Major League Baseball, which had its spring training interrupted, are looking at truncated schedules. Both leagues have also contemplated playing games in empty stadiums, though it is unclear how risky that might be to players and to employees who produce the games. Officials in both leagues said they prefer to play with fans in the seats.

Either way, sports leagues and tournaments say they will let the advice of medical experts, not the president, guide their decisions on when to resume play.

“I hope so,” Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, said Monday when asked about Trump’s “sooner rather than later” forecast. “But I won’t do anything that doesn’t put the safety of our employees and customers first. Nothing is more important than their health.”

Indeed, the governors of two of the country’s largest states — California and New York, which together host more than 20 teams in the five largest leagues — said they were skeptical of the president’s timeline.

“I’m not anticipating that happening in this state,” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said Saturday after the president spoke. “One has to be very cautious here, one has to be careful not to over promise.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York said he, too, will rely on guidance from medical experts.

“I would love to see sports back, help with cabin fever,” he said on Sunday. “But this is not about hopes and dreams and aspirations and what you would like to see. None of us like being here. Follow the data, follow the science, let the professional doctors, health care professionals tell you when it’s safe to reopen and that’s when you reopen.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/sports/trump-sports-return-coronavirus.html