Nashville SC removed from MLS tournament due to COVID-19 cases
ORLANDO, Fla. — Nashville SC became the second team removed from the MLS is Back Tournament due to COVID-19 cases, triggering changes to Orlando City’s pool and the overall tournament format.
Nashville had five players test positive for COVID-19 shortly after it arrived in Orlando and another four turned up inconclusive results.
Follow-up testing confirmed nine total players had the virus.
The team was isolated at the Swan and Dolphin Resort following the initial positive test results and was unable to train while getting tested daily.
“We have withdrawn Nashville SC from the MLS is Back Tournament,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a news release. “Due to the number of positive tests, the club has been unable to train since arriving in Orlando and would not be able to play matches,” said MLS Commissioner Don Garber. “For every decision we make in our return to play, the well being of our players, staff, officials and all participants is our top priority.”
Nashville SC’s lineup includes Winter Park native Dax McCarty, the team’s captain who won’t be able to play close to home.
The Athletic reported the majority of Nashville players wanted to try to stay in the tournament, but the league opted to remove them.
As a result, Chicago Fire was moved out of Orlando City’s Group A and joins Group B, which features San Jose, Seattle and Vancouver.
Nashville also was in the six-team Group A, so the will now have six pools of four teams apiece.
The top two teams from each group along with the four best third-place finishers will move on to the knockout stage, which begins July 25.
Here is Group A’s revised schedule: July 14: Philadelphia Union vs. Inter Miami CF, 10:30 p.m. (TUDN/TSN)
July 14: New York City FC vs. Orlando City SC, 8 p.m. (TUDN/TSN)
July 20: Philadelphia Union vs. Orlando City SC, 8 p.m. (TUDN/TSN)
July 20: Inter Miami CF vs. New York City FC, 9 a.m. (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/TSN)
And here is the Group C revised schedule:
July 14: Chicago Fire FC vs. Seattle Sounders FC, 9 a.m. (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/TSN)
July 19: Chicago Fire FC vs. San Jose Earthquakes, 8 p.m. (FS1/TUDN/TSN)
July 23: Chicago Fire FC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 9 a.m. (ESPN/ESPN Deportes/TSN)
July 19: Seattle Sounders FC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 10:30 p.m. (FS1/ TUDN/TSN)
FC Dallas was removed from the MLS tournament on Monday after 10 players and one coaching staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
Now the league has lost one team from each conference, with Nashville moving from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference after the pandemic shut down play to reduce travel distance if the league resumes play at teams’ home stadiums after the tournament concludes. MLS announced Nashville and Chicago will stay in the Eastern Conference for any 2020 matches played after the tournament ends.
A source with knowledge of the situation told the Orlando Sentinel earlier this week the league does not believe it has community spread within the MLS bubble and all COVID-19 exposure was in teams’ home markets.
MLS is working with a panel of infectious disease experts and league officials suggest the cases turned up after final testing in home markets or immediately after teams arrived showed the league’s safety policies are effective.
The league originally planned for teams to arrive weeks ahead of tournament play, mirroring the NBA’s return to play plan, but tightened its timeline when players balked at spending months in Orlando.
The more compressed schedule did not enough provide time for Nashville SC or FC Dallas players to potentially recover, clear quarantine and play in the tournament. dorms will be open only to freshmen and seniors. Yale said it would limit its dorms to 60% capacity and said most classes would be conducted remotely. Princeton will also do most of its teaching online, with dorms at half capacity.
But while Ivy League football remains a quaint extracurricular activity, the sport drives millions in revenues for Power Five schools. According to USA Today, the Longhorns football program brought Texas more than $144 million in 2018.
Losing football would be a heavy blow for most schools. As Stanford announced it was cutting 11 varsity sports, its athletic director warned that a $25 million deficit forecast for 2021 would likely double if the football season is canceled.
At a White House summit on reopening schools earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump asked University of Alabama chancellor Finis St. John if the Crimson Tide will play football this year.
“I can promise you. We are planning to play the season at the University of Alabama,” St. John said. “Understand that creates great difficulties and complexities, and we are hoping for that. It’s important to a lot of people. But we’re doing our best on that one.”
Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh said on Wednesday he and his team want to play — even if it means moving the season to the spring, or playing in front of more than 100,000 empty seats at Michigan Stadium, known as “The Big House.”
“It (the pandemic) is part of our society and we’re going to have to deal with it,” he said. “These kids have to do the same thing. They’ve got to go to school. They’ve been training their whole lives for the opportunity to play their sport.”