No pro sports in California this year? Newsom says games will have to wait for COVID-19 vaccine
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said professional sports have the power to lift the nation’s spirits and unite people living in isolation, but he doesn’t believe major sporting events will return any time soon.
Newsom offered a regretful response during his daily news conference Thursday when asked if the games will go on as the state eases COVID-19 restrictions in the months ahead. Newsom said he doesn’t envision large-scale, live-audience sporting events until a vaccine is available, and that is unlikely to happen for a minimum of 12 to 18 months, according to medical experts.
“It’s difficult to imagine a stadium that’s filled until we have immunity, until we have a vaccine,” Newsom said.
The NBA suspended its season March 11 after a player tested positive for COVID-19. The NFL, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, Major League Soccer, NCAA and other major sports bodies followed suit, postponing and canceling countless events over the past two months as stay-at-home orders took hold across the country.
Newsom addressed the question as the NFL prepared to release its 2020 schedule and NBA teams announced they would reopen practice facilities for voluntary individual workouts under COVID-19 protocols. The Kings said they plan to open their training facility Monday under guidelines set forth by the Sacramento County Department of Health Services and the NBA.
Newsom said he has spoken to sports commissioners and representatives of players associations about the return of professional sports, but the outlook he offered Thursday was grim. Newsom even posed a question of his own, asking what would happen if sports resumed and players contracted the virus during the season.
“Imagine what the leagues do when one or two of their key personnel or players are tested positive,” Newsom said. “Do they quarantine the rest of the team? If an offensive lineman is practicing with a defensive lineman, and they tested positive, what happens to the rest of the line? What happens for the game coming up the next weekend? It’s inconceivable to me that that’s not a likely scenario, so it’s a very challenging question.”
Still, teams and leagues are preparing for an eventual return. The NFL announced it is planning to start the season Sept. 10 when the Houston Texas visit the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City, Mo.
ESPN reported Thursday that Major League Baseball expects to provide the MLB Players Association with a return-to-play proposal within a week. Players are reportedly being asked to prepare for spring training in mid-June and the start of the season in early July.
Further postponements could be announced if public health orders are still in place.
Earlier this week, Newsom laid out California’s Pandemic Roadmap with six indicators for modifying the state’s stay-at-home order. Newsom said the state is entering Stage 2 of a four-step plan to lift COVID-19 restrictions. Live-audience sporting events won’t be permitted until Stage 4, which will require “therapeutic development to meet the demand” in order to “return to expanded workforce in highest risk workplaces.”
Newsom played basketball and baseball at Redwood High School and attended Santa Clara University on a partial baseball scholarship. He said he understands the importance of sports in society, but he doesn’t know when sporting events will return.
“When I say I’m passionate about sports, I really am, and how uniting sports can be at a time when people feel so torn apart and so anxious,” Newsom said. “I really think they’re incredibly important in terms of the spirit and pride that a community, state and a nation can build, and so I say this very, very honestly. I hope to be able to answer that question sooner than later, but it’s a very tough question for these leagues to answer because they must have a safety-first, health-first mindset, and there are conditions that persist in this state and this nation that make reopening very, very challenging.”
This story was originally published May 7, 2020 at 3:56 PM with the headline "No pro sports in California this year? Newsom says games will have to wait for COVID-19 vaccine."
