With the absence of sports coming as a result of COVID-19’s spread and effect on the world, sports fans all over the world have been waiting for any news regarding the return of their favorites. Approaching their returns in a similar fashion, Major League Soccer and the National Basketball Association have both elected to return to the field, and court, respectively, via the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Bay Lake, Florida (sometimes stated as in Orlando). Major League Baseball also has plans to return in July.
“MLS is Back Tournament”
Announcement
While the 2020 Major League Soccer Season began on February 29th, 2020, it was soon suspended as early as March 12th, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 10th, 2020, MLS executives announced a team-up with Disney to precede the 2020 MLS season with a new bracket called the “MLS is Back Tournament” starting on July 8th, 2020 with a championship held on August 11th, 2020.
Format
The tournament will function as a one-off event with all 26 teams in attendance and without spectators at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Bay Lake, Florida. The format of the event involves a groups stage where teams are split off into 6 different groups and will play 3 matches each. The records resulting from this will determine which teams will participate in the single elimination knockout stage. Interestingly, while the tournament itself has a start and end, there are greater implications for teams for the 2020 season: the groups stage matches will all be counted towards the teams’ 2020 MLS season records and the winner of the whole event will automatically be awarded a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League, regardless of whether the winning team is a U.S. or Canadian club. This spot will replace the spot normally given to the MLS regular season points leader from the conference that did not win the 2020 Supporters’ Shield.
After the Event
When drawn up, the plan was for the 2020 Major League Soccer regular season to continue on following the MLS is Back Tournament and eventually pivot into a, somewhat, normal post-season. As of the writing of this blog, this plan has been maintained, but we do not have any news of the regular season’s dates yet.
NBA Return-to-Play Plan
Situation and Announcement
While the 2020 MLS Season was only halted a couple games in, the 2019-2020 NBA Season was already in its 6th month of operation (having begun October 22nd, 2019 and suspended on March 11th, 2020) when its progress was stopped due to the pandemic. Originally, the playoffs were to begin only a month after the season’s suspension, on April 18th, 2020, with an end in June 2020, but fans and teams alike waited until June 2020 for even an announcement of the season’s continuation. This announcement came from the NBA Board of Governors on June 4th, 2020, in the form of a restart of the season on July 30th, 2020 at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex near Orlando, Florida (like the MLS Season return).
Format
Unlike the MLS plan, the NBA will not be returning all teams to action with the Return-to-Play Plan. The plan has detailed that only 22 of the 30 teams in the league will be returning to play their “regular season” games in Orlando. Of the 22 teams participating, 13 are from the West and 9 are from the East. The NBA has made sure to include the 16 teams that are currently “qualified” for the playoffs along with the 6 teams that are within playoff contention. The season’s beginning on July 30th will be followed by each of the 22 teams playing 8 regular season games to finish out the season and determine final playoff seedings. In the case that the last seed, the 8th seed, in either conference has a 9th seed 4 games or less behind in the standings, the NBA has elected to do an experimental play-in tournament with further ramifications: the 8th and 9th seed are to play games until the 8th seed has one once or the 9th seed has one twice. As far as when the playoffs could end, NBA Finals prospective game 7 end date would be October 12th, 2020 if need be.
After the Season
Since the timing of the season is pushed much later than usual, the Draft and beginning of the following season will be much closer in timing to the conclusion of the previous season. This year, the latest day the Finals will go to could be October 12th, 2020, as stated above, and the NBA Draft will take place only 3 days later, on October 15th, 2020. Less than two months later, the 2020-2021 NBA Regular Season is estimated to begin around December 1st, 2020.
Baseball (MLB)
Players have reports for spring training, with opening day scheduled for July 23rd or 24th. All teams and players have been given the 100-plus pages of health and safety protocols, with color-coded charts, social-distancing workout diagrams and diagnostic questionnaires, but the material is entirely new and unfamiliar. It is expected to be a shortened, 60 game regular season, but the complete schedule has yet been finalized.
Updates:
MLS
FC Dallas
Following the league’s move to the Orlando area to prep for the upcoming tournament, already FC Dallas has had 9 players and 1 coach test positive for COVID-19 (3 players tested positive before the move, the rest have since been infected). The implications of this are unsure so far, but rumors around FC Dallas’s participation being either delayed or cancelled have been entertained so far.
Columbus Crew SC
Other reported news following the temporary move of the MLS to Orlando involves another player being infected with COVID-19, bringing the tournament’s start date into question.
NBA
As of July 2nd, 2020, 25 of the 351 players in the NBA have tested positive for COVID-19. Not all of these players are set to compete according to the Return to Play Plan, but this number (7% of the NBA’s players) comes just before the league is moving 22 teams to an area that has been a haven for the spread of the virus since reopening nonessential businesses (Florida).
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