When MLB came back to play in the summer to start off sports in the era of COVID, mistakes were made. Since then, the sports world learned ways to play in a global pandemic.
Sports leagues have banned fans in their stadiums, put in contract tracing, and conducted a lot of mandatory testing. However, outbreaks still appear every so often.
The effects of COVID in sports started right as it was affecting the rest of the world when according to the Washington Post, Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert, who later tested positive for COVID-19, thought it would be funny to touch every microphone he could reach after speaking to reporters as a press conference on March 9.
As the coronavirus continued to spread, the NHL, the NBA, MLB and MLS then issued a joint statement saying they would close their locker rooms to the media and all nonessential personnel.
Players would be brought to designated interview rooms or areas to speak with media members, who were asked to remain six to eight feet from the athletes.
However, it wasn’t even two days later until Gobert’s positive COVID-19 test result came to light which caused the NBA to postpone the season. Things went downhill from there.
The MLB delayed the start of the season.
March Madness got postponed.
Our world got turned upside down.
Months went by, and the sports world went dark. Then came July 23.
There was light at the end of the tunnel because the MLB resumed.
But then the inevitable happened, even with no fans and tests being administered. There was an outbreak of COVID.
The Miami Marlins had an outbreak with 18 players infected. The reason? The MLB did not put into place a “bubble” of sorts to keep the players safe. Marlins players reportedly enjoyed a night out in Atlanta during a series against the Atlanta Braves.
This outbreak did not just affect the Marlins, but affected other team’s schedules, including the Phillies, who had just played the Marlins before the outbreak occurred. These teams were forced to either quarantine or wait until the league could find a team for them to play against.
After that, the MLB was more prepared and positive test results were dealt with swiftly and the season had no more major delays. In fact, the same Marlins team that originally had that first outbreak made the playoffs.
When the NBA finally returned, they took a different approach than the MLB and created a “bubble” in Disney World in Orlando.
The rationale was that once they got the players to Disney World, they could keep them COVID free. Games were played with no fans.
It worked, flawlessly. According to NPR, there were zero COVID cases reported in the bubble.
The NHL had a similar system in Canada that also did incredibly well in keeping COVID out, because, according to The Washington Post, the NHL reported zero cases of COVID while in their own bubble.
So far, major sports leagues have handled the pandemic well, although I would be joking if I said it was flawless for everyone.
A bubble works.
Preferably no fans.
If there are fans, like in some college and NFL games, they need to be socially distanced. You have that, and you have a successful season.