When the vaccine comes out.
I'm going to have to agree with KobeisBack.
It seems a little bit crazy that when there isn't anything else of particular interest on T.V., that I can't flip to any of the sports channels to catch a game or a match. And I don't even follow any particular sport or team with regularity so much as I just like to catch a good game every once in a while. So I can only imagine how the true sports fanatics are feeling right now. But I'm sorry to say I can't see sports returning any time soon. This is particularly sad when I consider how much I was looking forward to the summer Olympics this year. Then consider what it must be like for the Olympic athletes that have been practically planning their whole lives around peaking at a specific time in order to perform their best at the summer games.
First, I really can't see games being played without the crowds. It's just hard for me to imagine, for example, a baseball game being played in silence, without the roar of the crowd at the sound of the crack of the bat when a ball is hit deep to left center as fans on either side try to urge the ball to fall short and be caught on the warning track while others try to compel it up and over the wall. One of the main sports that I do watch almost religiously is boxing. It's hard to describe the contrast between, let's say, a co-main event which takes place later in the evening, when the house is filled and a preliminary bout that happens before the show goes on air. Even a fairly dull fight, full of feinting and jabs thrown from out of range, seems more exiting when the crowd roars every time a power punch is thrown even when they miss. But a hard fought fight, contested at a high skill level can seem relatively dull when it takes place early on in the evening, before the crowds have filed in and filled the stands. Now apply that to a basketball game. Imagine the ball being pushed up and down the courts to nothing but the sound of the ball bouncing and shoes squeaking on the courts. No screaming, cheering, chanting fans pushing the players to overcome fatigue and muster the energy to go on a run. It would look like practice going on out there. That it wouldn't be the same goes without saying. The extent to which it would not be the same, is hard to even fathom. I just can't see it.
That's not even taking in to account the loss of revenue from unfilled arenas. But let's not even get into that. Let's just pretend that T.V. revenues would be enough to satisfy team owners and support the infrastructure necessary to put the games on. Let's pretend. Okay.
I think a lot of people, when they think of sports, are only thinking of the games being played on the field. You have to think about what a large organization it takes to support a sports team. You have to consider that a sports team consists of teammates existing in very close proximity to one another on the benches, in dugouts and sidelines, as well as sharing locker rooms, clubhouses, weight rooms and training facilities, and traveling together on busses and planes. Then you add in coaches, trainers, physical therapists, equipment managers and so on. Even without including the back office and logistical support mechanisms, many of which I admit, utilizing todays communications technology and interconnectivity applications, can be performed remotely, you've already got a lot of individuals sharing and utilizing a lot of common spaces.
I think that a lot of people are failing to realize how far we are from being over with this whole ordeal. The social distancing and staying at home are measures only intended to slow the spread. It's not like on May 1, or mid May or even when June gets here, everything is going to suddenly be okay. We will have hopefully slowed the spread and kept it from overwhelming the health care system. We will not, however, have gotten rid of the Covid-19 virus. And as people begin to reemerge from their homes and intermingle, the virus is going to reemerge as well, and a lot more people are going to get sick with Coronavirus before we're done. We're still going to need to practice personal protective measures and avoid crowds until a vaccine is developed.
