League eyeing Disney World
League in talks with Wide World of Sports complex as a single site to return to play in July
Negotiations center on using ESPN complex in Orlando as single site for return.
The NBA is going to Disney World. Or at least, it hopes to save its season and declare a champion in a single-site scenario outside of Orlando, Fla.
In the most public sign yet that the NBA is hopeful that it can resume its 2019-20 season amid the coronavirus pandemic, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said the league has begun exploratory talks with the Walt Disney Company about using its venue in central Florida to hold practices and games without fans present.
“The NBA, in conjunction with the National Basketball Players Association, is engaged in exploratory conversations with The Walt Disney Company about restarting the 2019-20 NBA season in late July at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida as a single site for an NBA campus for games, practices and housing,” Bass said.
“Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and we are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place.”
Disney, which owns ESPN, is one of the NBA’s two major television partners. Disney executive chairman Robert Iger made a general presentation to the NBA Board of Governors in April and is considered a close friend of NBA commissioner Adam Silver and players association president Chris Paul. The Wide World of Sports Complex includes multiple arenas and hotels and has hosted the NBA Jr. World Championship and AAU championships. The Walt Disney World Resort includes an NBA Experience attraction.
Other cities, including Houston, have been considered as potential locations to restart the league, especially if the NBA sought multiple locations. But the Orlando area has been a heavy favorite if one site is to be used given the strong relationship between Disney and the NBA.
The format of a resumed season is yet to be determined with the league considering options that would include regular season games or moving directly to the postseason. The league has scheduled a Board of Governors meeting for Friday to consider options to restart practices and how to resume the season.
Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta said in a White House meeting on Monday that he thought the league would play some games prior to beginning a postseason.
The NBA will poll general managers on their thoughts about moving directly to the playoffs, playing a limited regular-season schedule with all 30 teams, holding a play-in tournament to determine the final teams in the playoffs and even replacing the firstround with a group stage of games similar to international tournaments.
Games would likely be played throughout each day, as with the Las Vegas summer league or G League showcase, with one venue designated for national broadcasts of premier games. Still, it would take between 2½ and three months to complete an 82-game schedule (without back-to-backs) and a full postseason with four rounds of best-of-seven series. That would seem to stretch the season further than the NBA would choose and would require a longer stay within the campus setting than players and staff members would want.
Playing some games prior to the postseason could be viewed as beneficial to help prepare for the playoffs after the long layoff but also because most television contracts with regional sports networks call for a minimum of 70 games. Teams had played between 63 and 67 games when the season was suspended March 11.
Many of those games were exclusive national television broadcasts and would not count toward the RSNs’ 70 games.
Moving directly to the postseason or even including only playoff teams and a few teams in a play-in situation would however dramatically reduce the numbers at the single-site and shorten the timeline.
Practices could begin within the single-site setup, but there has seemed to be growing sentiment toward increasing workouts in each market. The NBA this month permitted teams to open training facilities to players, but only under strict protocols and with no group activities.
ESPN reported that new guidelines are expected June 1 that could include recalling players to their teams’ markets. But teams in cities with more stringent stayat-home orders would be unable to escalate the workouts or begin team practices later next month in their own markets, complicating the efforts to ramp up practices, as would the need to quarantine players returning from overseas.
Holding all practices on one site prior to resuming the season would dramatically increase the time on the campus setting, a potential issue for teams expected to have a long playoff run with no chance of home games.
Silver had reassured players on a May 8 conference call that the league did not envision attempting to limit them to their hotel rooms, training facilities and the courts.
“You will be allowed to leave,” Lakers veteran Jaren Dudley said Wednesday on conference call with media. “Now just because you leave, if we’re going to give you that leeway, if you come back with corona, you can’t play.
“That’s where the responsibility comes for us. Sometimes it’s out of our realm, in the sense of, ‘Hey, we got to stay within the bubble. Let’s do this. We got to stay isolated. It’s going to be hard for two months, but it’s something we have to sacrifice.’”
Public health experts have concluded that the coronavirus, which has led to the deaths of more than 95,000 Americans, is transmitted more easily indoors and in close-contact situations. Several NBA players, including Kevin Durant, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell have tested positive in the last two months.
Silver indicated that if a player tested positive, he would be isolated but that the season would not again be halted. Resuming the season and responding to a positive test would require extensive testing with Silver stressing that the NBA did not take tests from markets where they are insufficient.
Cases in Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties, where the Wide World of Sports Complex is located, have stabilized. As of Friday evening, there had been 1,744 confirmed cases and 38 deaths in Orange County, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, and 644 cases and 18 deaths in Osceola County. That represented a combined increase of roughly 500 cases in May.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that leagues like the NBA will have the full support of local government in his state. Major League Soccer also has discussed playing at the Disney complex.
“All these professional sports are going to be welcome in Florida,” DeSantis said earlier this month. “We think it’s important and we know it can be done safely.”
Even the most optimistic discussions about resuming play have cited the caveat that it would depend on trends with the virus, rather than hopes for the season. Saturday’s confirmation of a step toward salvaging the season was significant if only as a public acknowledgement of the goal.