Sports are starting to make a return after the coronavirus pandemic. The UFC, golf, and other individual sports have made the comeback. However, team sports have a more difficult job to create a safe environment for players.
All eyes have been on baseball the past week. The owners have presented the players with a plan to begin the 2020 season. The players and owners are negotiating an agreement to begin the 2020 MLB season.
There are several obstacles that face MLB from continuing their season. They need the promise of 200,000 coronavirus tests along with the cooperation of a team in another country.
“What’s at stake here is a human life,” said Andy Dolich, a Bay Area consultant who has worked as a senior executive for teams including the Oakland A’s. “That might sound overdramatic, but it doesn’t sound overdramatic to me. All the people involved, that’s a person, with a name, who has a family.”
Baseball’s plan is to test players frequently, but not daily. Protective equipment will be used, but not taken from the public.
MLB is one of many leagues that continues to lose money. They have estimated that MLB is losing roughly $75 million a day. There has been discussion that MLB will have to disinfect balls, clubhouses, and ban paying fans from the stadium.
Like all other sports, MLB will need help from local political officials. Florida, Arizona, Texas, and New York are among the states with governors that have been positive about the return of professional sports to their state.
The White House is behind the start of the league, but the players union has to be on the same page. Right now, the revenue split between the owners and the players is the biggest issue at hand.
“We’re having to work to separate fact from fiction to make sure our guys are protected. It’s a very delicate dance,” a union source said.
Needing Help
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has been convincing several governors to work with them locally to get baseball back. Some people believe that the long term effect of the game has a lot of stake in this return.
“A lot of the things that people do for fun, they certainly have not been able to do for a couple of months,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who is part owner of a minor league team, said in an interview with ESPN. “Bringing baseball back in summer would be something that for a lot of people is a big deal. So we would hope that would take place.”
Responding to this virus pandemic is going to take a team effort. During these negotiations, no one is going to get what they believe they deserve exactly.
Most players have expressed to ESPN and other outlets that they wish to play this season. But they don’t want the risk to come with a reduction in the amount they will be paid.
“At the end of the day, frenemies, enemies, friends — whatever you want to call the relationship between players and MLB — I think we both want the same thing, to play baseball,” Dodgers pitcher Alex Wood said.
