When are professional sports coming back?
April 24, 2020
On March 11th, 2020, the world here in the United States was turned upside down, especially in the sports world. On this day, the NBA suspended their season when Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus, which started a domino effect around the sports world with the NHL, MLB and MLS all suspending their seasons until the month of May or later. This falls in line with the CDC saying no groups of people over 50 until early May. Senior Leo Gantert said, “I need Professional sports because that’s all I watch on TV”.
The first league to suspend their season was the NBA and they have set the tone for everyone during the hiatus for sports here in America. According to CNBC , Players have been very giving with donating parts of their salaries to stadium works and people who are in need. Here in Minnesota, Karl Anthony-Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves donated to the Mayo Clinic to help with tests. Unfortunately, the state mourns a loss as Anthony-Towns mom sadly passed away from the virus, but some good news is that his dad has fully recovered from the virus, according to CNN. The NBA has been very vocal about waiting to get an all-clear from the CDC about when to play again. They are hoping to be back in the month of June without fans; if that is not feasible at the time, the league commissioner and team owners will have the decision to keep waiting or to cancel and wait for the next season to come. The league first-year player draft has already been pushed back from June to August. Ten NBA players have tested positive for the virus so far. 
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The MLB was towards the end of their two-month spring training with two weeks left until the regular season started when they suspended their season. They have had three minor league players test positive but no one in the major league has tested positive so far. According to CBS Sports ,the MLB and the CDC are working very hard to get their season going by mid-May with social distancing guidelines that will be implemented during this season until given the all clear. The league commissioner and team owners are talking about playing how they do in spring training with the Cactus and Grapefruit league. The Cactus league will play in Arizona and the Grapefruit league will play in Florida with no fans. The Twins are in the Grapefruit league so they will play their season in Florida until they are allowed to play back at Target Field. All player salaries have been cut by 10% so teams can pay their stadium workers and other people who work for the team. The Twins have also been supporting families in the twin cities area by making face masks out of Bomba Hankies from the 2019 season.
According to Yahoo Sports , the NHL as of now is planning on starting the season again sometime in the summer with no fans and delaying the start of the 2021 season while still playing a full season with fans in attendance. The MLS was two weeks into their season when they had it suspended for 30 days. Their suspension has now been extended until June and will plan to start up again with no fans until given the all clear from the CDC for everything to go back to normal according to CBS Sports.
The NFL season doesn’t start until September but President Trump has come out and said that the NFL will start as scheduled this year as long as we flatten the curve. With stay at home orders in effect, no NFL teams are allowed at their team facilities and with the draft coming up, teams will be doing the draft from home.
Watching sports in person or on tv will definitely not be taken for granted after they return as they are missed across America.Senior Nick Mullenbach said, “I miss watching my idols on tv and see how goo they are and inspiring to be them”. It’s become a thing of the past for Americans right now and sports channels have been replaying old sporting events but it’s definitely not the same as a live sporting event.
