Time To Shut Down Pro Sports Industry In U.S. For A While; Universal Timeout Needed In Response To Coronavirus Pandemic Health Crisis

March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 Alan Snel

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

As sports leagues and college sports are suspending their events one-by-one, it’s time for the sports industry in this country to get on the same page and move forward in unity to better limit the outbreak of COVID-19, an infectious virus.

It’s time to shove politics to the side as best as you can and face a public health crisis together as a country. That means the sports industry in the U.S. should be taking a collective timeout.

It’s happening league by league, sport by sport anyway. Major League Soccer Thursday announced that it’s suspending its season for 30 days after the NBA Wednesday shuttered operation. The National Hockey League was next Thursday.

The Las Vegas Lights soccer team and the United Soccer League are also suspended for 30 days. Major League Baseball has suspended spring training and pushed back the start of the regular season.

Major college basketball conferences Thursday like the Pac-12 here in Las Vegas began calling off their tournament games. This is March Madness time, when the fans are a major part of the brand of college basketball. Then later Thursday, the NCAA said the national hoops tournament has been scrubbed, too. No brackets. No March Madness.

The fact is crowds are crowds no matter what the sport or event and the best thing to do is slow down the outbreak by limiting forums that offer settings for one person to spread the virus to another. Here’s a cautionary tale from a doctor in Europe that appeared in Newsweek.

Italy has literally shut down its country because of the impact and spread of this worldwide virus because it took national action too late.

The World Health Organization called the disease caused by the novel coronavirus — COVID-19 — a pandemic. That means it’s a worldwide spread of a disease and most people do not have immunity from it. In the U.S., more than 1,000 people are infected with the coronavirus. As testing increases, that number will likely increase.

To stem the spread of this infectious disease, it’s time to take a knee for a while on pro and college sports to test everyone from players to coaches to fans to get a handle on the scope and magnitude of a health crisis. Maybe it’s 30 or 60 or 90 days — the national health and medical officials who know infectious diseases can determine the best recommendation.

I realize shutting down big-time sports for 60 days would have severe economic implications for millions of workers who pay their bills by working at events, in the tourism industry and in the travel segment of our economy.

And here in Las Vegas, there are thousands of Vegas Golden Knights fans who will lament if the National Hockey League takes time off for two months.

But understanding the scope of and stemming the spread of an infectious disease takes precedence even something that we hold precious to our hearts like sports.

As a country and as a sports industry, let’s move forward together on this public health crisis. We can live without sports for a time. But not your health.

Some social media posts that caught our attention.