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NHL focused on flexibility as Dr. Fauci sets parameters for return of sports
It feels like the closest thing to resembling real momentum toward the potential re-start on sports and, more specifically, the 2019-20 NHL season.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most front-facing member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the top infectious diseases expert advising U.S. President Donald Trump, explained in a recent interview with Snapchat’s Peter Hamby that there is a “way” toward sports resuming this summer, though it would have to come under certain conditions.
First and foremost, filling up rinks and stadiums with fans simply isn’t an option in the short term and perhaps not even the foreseeable future, so all competition would have to be staged without spectators in the seats. And secondly, while not stating it explicitly in the interview, Fauci advocated for the use of neutral sites or other highly-controlled settings to simulate extended quarantines, as to limit exposure on the athletes and the public.
“Put (athletes) in big hotels, you know, wherever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled .. But have them tested like every week, and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family, and just let them play the season out.”
The roadmap Fauci laid out isn’t necessarily news.
Those keeping tabs on the NHL’s process and all return-to-play scenarios in professional sports will have already understood that these factors would be included in the path of least resistance for league offices.
It’s the reason we’ve heard several reports about the NHL and NBA identifying buildings — for example in North Dakota and Las Vegas, respectively — that could potentially house tournament-style competition in the summer months.
What is important, however, is the timing on this.
While continuing to trumpet his administration’s work in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump began to shift his attention this week toward the process of reopening the U.S. economy. And included in the task force to “reopen America,” the president has enlisted NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the remaining top executives of the major North American sports leagues to serve on that committee.
The commissioners will join the president Wednesday for a conference call. It will be the second time they’ve been summoned since sports were shut down.
Misguided or not, it’s clear Trump considers sport to be a key checkpoint on re-starting the economy, and building back toward to achieving a level of societal normalcy.
"We have to get our sports back,” Trump said in his Tuesday briefing. “I'm tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old."
High-level investment in the efforts to resume pro sports is a considerable development, but in terms of real, actionable news from this week, the NHL has only pushed back its timetable on a return.
It was announced Tuesday that the mandated quarantine period for players had been extended by 15 days until April 30. With Bettman also stating this week that players would need two to three weeks to re-condition themselves, the earliest the NHL could potentially return in now late May.
With an incomplete regular season as it stands as well as the desire to have next season remain whole while preserving the integrity of the Stanley Cup competition, it seems the NHL is quickly running out of runway on the calendar before having to make major concessions.
However Bettman doesn’t quite see it that way.
“We are focused on being as flexible and as agile as possible, and when we get the opportunity from a health standpoint to bring our players together, to let our teams reconstitute themselves, to get operations up and running, we’ll be in a position to do that whenever it makes sense,” the commissioner said Wednesday on Mornings with Maria with Fox Business.
“We believe that we can be fairly flexible in terms of the calendar, and my guess at this point is we’re probably going to be playing into the summer, which is something we certainly can do.”
While the leagues may have federal support, decisions at the state level like the one made by Florida governor Ron DeSantis will be required for leagues to stage competition at neutral venues.
This week DeSantis ruled that professional sports were an essential service, paving the way for the WWE to continue filming shows at their performance centre in Orlando. With a similar sporting infrastructure, this seemed to re-open the door to the UFC as well, however it seems that its next fight card will take place next month in Nevada at the company’s own production space.
With two states apparently willing to sanction professional sports and many others managing to avoid a significant toll through the coronavirus pandemic, it’s possible that the NHL finds a solution through similar means.
But while Bettman admits that the league is looking into neutral venues, he also acknowledged Wednesday that there are far more complications to consider before the NHL could comfortably take that same route.
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