Sports fans and sports bettors who were hoping to see the New York Yankees host the Boston Red Sox on May 9 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx are obviously disappointed since that game isn’t going to happen. Ditto for the New York Mets at the St. Louis Cardinals slated for the same day.
And that May 9 date between the Seattle Mariners at the Houston Astros? Another victim of the coronavirus pandemic that has postponed the start of the Major League Baseball season.
The NHL season has been similarly disrupted along with the NBA and the professional golf tour (the AT&T Byron Nelson at the Trinity Forest Golf Club in Dallas for the same weekend was long ago canceled) as health concerns over a frightening pandemic handily trump sports, concerts and large gatherings of any kind.
Enter Dana White of Las Vegas-based UFC.
The brash, pugnacious ringmaster of the UFC has been trying to deliver UFC 249 since its originally scheduled date of April 18 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York was postponed. White even tried to stage the program at an alternative California site at a tribal venue outside of state jurisdiction but that too fizzled when he bowed to pressure from ESPN executives to cancel.
Now UFC 249 is back on the calendar for May 9 at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. It’s a packed lineup with a dozen fights including two championship bouts, and bettors have lines they can pounce on if they find the right mobile app.
Dana White, with phone in New York a few years ago, says the show will go on.
In the Lightweight Championship, Tony Ferguson is -174 vs. Justin Gaethje at +148, according to Vegas Insider. Gaethje is stepping in because Khabib Nurmagomedov has returned to Russia because of the pandemic and travel restrictions, the website noted. Ferguson is 26-3-0 while Gaethje is 21-2-0.
In the Bantamweight Championship, Henry Cejudo is heavily favored at -245 vs. Dominick Cruz, who gets +200 on the buyback. Cruz brings a record of 22-2-0. Cejudo is 15-2-0.
In the women’s strawweight, Carla Esparz is -152 vs. Michelle Waterson. Esparza brings a 16-6-0 mark to the bout, while Waterson, aka the karate hottie, according to Vegas Insider, is 17-7-0.
It’s significant that some kind of sports and the betting that is associated with it is going to happen relatively soon. That’s encouraging to the sports fan closeted at home on a Monday night where the major event on ESPN is a replay of an October 2007 Monday Night Football game with the Dallas Cowboys at the Buffalo Bills (the Cowboys won, 25-24).
And fans will be able to tune in to UFC 249 beginning at 3:30 p.m. local time on ESPN, ESPN+, ESPN PPV and UFC Fight Pass. That is, in fact, the only way to watch the event since the 15,000-seat venue will be closed to fans and only essential personnel will be admitted.
Still, it’s something, and perhaps the beginning of the long road back to some kind of normalcy in the sports and sports betting world.
Daniel Behringer is a long-time Las Vegan. Follow posts at doublegutshot.com. On Twitter, @DanBehringer221.
Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com.
Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle.
In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com.
After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent.
Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.
