March Madness leads long list of canceled sports
The world's sports schedule cratered at warp speed hursday, with one of the biggest events on the U.S. calendar, the fun-filled and colorful college basketball tournament known as March Madness, becoming the first mega-event to be scrubbed due to fear of the spread of the coronavirus.
eaders at all levels of sports, including the CAA, BA, , Major eague Baseball, golf, tennis and soccer, decided the risk of playing games with the threat of the virus hanging over them was too great despite the billions of dollars to say nothing of the trophies, pride and once-in-a-lifetime experiences - hanging in the balance.
By late in the afternoon of an e - traordinary, headline-a-minute day across a pandemic-rattled globe, the CAA, which regulates March Madness and virtually all major U.S. college sports, basically had no choice. ith conferences and individual teams calling off their basketball seasons at breakneck pace, the CAA followed suit. hey scrapped all college winter and spring championships, the highlight of which is the men's basketball tournament - a three-week extravaganza that stands as the biggest event this side of the Super Bowl.
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The cancellation leaves a massive hole in American sports from campuses across the country, to a growing passel of sports-betting businesses that rely on college hoops money, to say nothing of the hearts of players who dwere poised to get their first, or last, or only chance to shine on the big stage.
All of it was to be covered by & 6 and its partners about percent of the N&AA’s $1. 5 billion annual budget is bankrolled by the money the networks pay to present the -team tournament over the air, on cable and online.
“This is bigger than a sport or championship,” said .andsas 8niversity coach ill 6elf, whose team would’ve been the likely favorite to win it all. d ours earlier, .ansas and Duke had each taken matters into their own hands, announcing they wouldn’t be sending any of their teams to games, no matter the stakes.
,t wasn’t even the most dMaw-dropping moment of the morning. That came, fittingly, at one of the world’s most renowned sports venues Madison 6quare arden where at halftime of a ig ast &onference tournament game, the 3A announcer came on and said the tournament had been called.
y then, every maMor conference, and virtually all of the minor ones, had done the same thing. They were prompted in part by the N&AA’s decision a day earlier to hold all its tournament games which had been scheduled to start next week in nine cities and close April at a 1, -seat stadium in Atlanta in front of friends and family and limited “essential” personnel.
Only hours later, with the stock market tanking, mixed messages coming out of :ashington and no promise of quick relief being offered by world health experts, it became even more clear that gatherings involving thousands of people were hard to Mustify. Also clear The N&AA would have trouble assembling an equitable bracket for its tournament, given that most games designed to suss out the most-deserving teams and automatic qualifiers had already been scrubbed.
“,’m not a researcher in immunology or infectious disease, but those who are engaged at the N&AA level provided some stark information yesterday,” said reg 6ankey, the commissioner of the 6outheastern &onference.
The March Madness news meant it will be a world free of basketball for the foreseeable future.
A day after the N A put its season on temporary hiatus, a second member of the 8tah -azz Donovan Mitchell tested positive for the coronavirus. The league said its suspension would last for at least days possibly a conservative guess, as teams undertake the task of identifying any player or referee who has had recent contact with the -azz, then putting them into isolation for the required two weeks.
“:hat would kill the N A season is if more players catch it,” Mavericks owner Mark &uban said in an interview on &N &. e called the hiatus a matter of “us being vigilant, as all businesses should be. usinesses are going to have to be incredibly vigilant, and that’s hard.”
The N L also suspended its season, though it did not report any positives for &O9,D-1 .
MaMor League aseball scrapped spring training and postponed the start of its season, currently scheduled for March , for at least two weeks.
The 3 A Tour decided Thursday night to scrap the rest of The 3layers &hampionship and shut down its other tournaments for the next three weeks. &ommissioner -ay Monahan had said earlier Thursday there would be no fans at the T3& 6awgrass for the final three rounds, or at the next three tournaments on the 3 A Tour schedule. The tour changed its mind late Thursday, with no immediate word whether The 3layers &hampionship the premier tournament run by the 3 A Tour, offering a $15 million purse would be rescheduled.
The L3 A Tour postponed three tournaments, beginning next week, including its first maMor of the season.
Tennis will also be canceling events. The AT3 called off men’s tournaments for the next six weeks the :TA said its tournament in 6outh &arolina, set for April -1 , would not be held as scheduled, with decisions about the rest of the season to come in the next week.
NA6&A5 announced it would race the next two weekends, in Atlanta and Miami, without fans, and ,ndy&ar made the same decision for its race this weekend in 6t. 3etersburg, Florida.
orse races were going on in several states, though without fans in the stands leaving the parimutuel wagers to be made online organizers of the .entucky Derby were moving forward with plans for the May race.
The NFL, never off the radar even in the depths of the offseason, announced a number of changes and cancellations on its schedule of meetings, fan fest and scouting trips all related to coronavirus.
The 8.6.-based MaMor League 6occer said it would shut down for a target period of days.
arlier in the day, soccer leagues and teams scrambled to make changes
elgium’s soccer league backpedaled on an earlier decision, and decided to close stadiums to fans.
A &hampions League game involving 5eal Madrid was postponed after the 6panish team puts its players in quarantine.
Dutch soccer authorities canceled all matches through the end of the month, including friendlies against the 8nited 6tates and 6pain.
Also, a second player from ,taly’s top soccer division tested positive. All sports in that hard-hit country have been suspended through April .
For once, there were no maMor announcements coming out of Tokyo, where conflicting messages about the status of this summer’s Olympics have come out of the country, and the ,O&, for weeks.
,nstead, the ,O& went ahead with its ceremonial lighting of the Olympic flame, an event held in front of the ruined Temple of era in Ancient Olympia.
“:e are strengthened ... by the many authorities and sports organizations around the world which are taking so many significant measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus,” ,O& president Thomas ach said.