New Jersey gives OK for pros to get back to work
The road back to professional sports involves a complicated dance, between leagues and the areas they call home, in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Tuesday marked a significant step on the latter front.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced that the state would allow professional sports franchises and leagues to operate in the state, paving the way for the Flyers and 76ers, both of whom have practice facilities there, to return to action.
“Professional sports teams in NJ may return to training and even competition – if their leagues choose to move in that direction,” Murphy tweeted Tuesday morning. “We have been in constant discussions with teams about necessary protocols to protect the health and safety of players, coaches, and personnel.”
The decision clears one hurdle; the other is if leagues give the OK to resume training. The NBA did as of May 8, allowing NBA teams to return for activities under certain conditions.
With both keys able to turn now, the Sixers can launch practices immediately. From a team statement: “Following today’s announcement by Governor Murphy, the Philadelphia 76ers Training Complex in Camden, New Jersey will begin a phased reopening tomorrow for voluntary, individual workouts. Players and essential staff will adhere to strict safeguards in accordance with NBA guidelines.”
The Flyers, whose training is based at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, refrained from a similar statement. It wasn’t until later in the day that the NHL released its return-to-play plan, which amid its nearly 2,000 words and mathematical formulas declared, ever so tentatively, that, “in early June, it is expected that teams will be permitted to return to home facilities for small group, voluntary, and onand off-ice training.” Full training camps won’t convene before July 1.
Many franchises have been able to call a truce in preparing for the season to return: If no one is back to practicing due to pandemicrelated restrictions, then no one loses ground. In the NBA, though, teams had been coming back piecemeal for the last several weeks, with the 76ers on the latter end of those cleared to resume. So they’re now playing catch-up.
The Philadelphia Union felt that pressure. MLS, which was halted two weeks into its season in March, cleared players to return for individual workouts May 6. Only a handful of teams were in a position, whether because of their local public-health outlook or the adaptability of their facilities, to resume then. But so pressing was the need to not lose more ground that the Union maneuvered to use the 76ers Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Del., to resume workouts May 18.
The Pennsylvania portion of the greater Philadelphia area remains slow to emerge from coronavirus lockdowns. Much of the state has entered the second phase — the “yellow phase” — of a threephase recovery set forth by Gov. Tom Wolf. Philadelphia and its surrounding counties (including Delco, Chester, Montgomery and Bucks) remain in the “red phase” until June 5. They are among the 18 counties that are the last to emerge from the “red phase.” By that date, the entire state will have at least advanced to the “yellow phase.”
The “red phase” allowed, “life sustaining businesses only.” The “yellow phase” requires continued closures of schools and indoor recreation or health facilities. Gatherings of more than 25 people are prohibited in the name of “aggressive mitigation.” But businesses are allowed greater latitude to resume in-person operations. Most moderate- and high-contact sports at the youth level will likely remain restricted, though the exact determinations are hazy.
From the way that Murphy described it in New Jersey, the idea is that social interactions are still cut down by maintaining remote work whenever feasible. But being a professional athlete is not one of those instances. Murphy felt secure in the precautions that professional teams could adopt in resuming operations.
“The specific data point for me is the ability, given the facilities, the commitment, the paid nature, the full-time nature of professional sports, not just the athletes, men and women, but the folks in their milieu, the ones that maintain the facilities and maintain the health realities,” Murphy said at his press briefing Tuesday. “That’s the most compelling piece of this, as opposed to a youth sports reality, which is a much more, we all know, it’s less rigid or more causal than a professional reality. but I hope we can get there sooner rather than later.”
“We’ve been working closely with both the leagues as well as the teams that have a presence in this state to determine what the appropriate policies are, and they’ve been great partners,” added chief counsel Matt Platkin.
With New Jersey open for sports business and Pennsylvania presumably on the path toward it, the ball is in the leagues’ courts. MLS and the NBA have stated their preferences, though each is still weighing the possibility of bubble leagues, coincidentally both in the Orlando, Fla., area. MLB remains in the test balloon phase while owners and players battle over wages. The latest salvo included drastic pay cuts tabled by the owners Tuesday. The Phillies, who appear to still be in operation, have not announced anything about a possible return.