'We have to get our sports back': Trump says he is sick of watching baseball repeats
Donald Trump, a man not known for his patience, wants to get live sports back as soon as possible. The president made his comments during a White House press conference on Tuesday evening. Professional sports across America, and the world, have been shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Trump said he was bored of watching repeats.
“We have to get our sports back. I’m tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old,” he said. “But I haven’t actually had too much time to watch. I would say maybe I watch one batter then I get back to work.”
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s prominent public health adviser, said sports could only reopen if fans are excluded and players put under strict quarantine. “There’s a way of doing that,” Fauci told Snapchat’s Peter Hamby. “Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the athletes] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them pretty well surveilled ... have them tested every single week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family and just let them play the season out.”
Meanwhile New York City’s mayor,
Bill de Blasio, gave a cautious response when he was asked about reopening sports.
“It’s not an on-off switch [reopening] and we should get it right, one false move and we will see a resurgence , that’s the worst of all scenarios, so let’s get this right ... it will be about smart, careful, staged reopening. If you put 50,000 people in Yankee stadium and see a resurgence [of Covid-19] that would be the worst thing. We have one chance to contain this thing,” he told CNN on Wednesday morning. More than 10,000 people have died in New York City during the pandemic.
Trump has repeatedly spoken of his desire to get the US to reopen for business as soon as possible, as the Covid-19 shutdown takes a massive toll on the economy. As part of that drive, Trump has assembled a team of advisers from the sports world. They include the commissioners of the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, PGA and LPGA as well as Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban, the owners of the New
England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks respectively.
Trump singled out two men on the panel for special praise, calling UFC president Dana White and WWE chairman Vince McMahon “great”. Both men are long-term allies of the president and White spoke at a campaign rally for Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Both White and McMahon have made steps towards resuming their sports. White told ESPN on Tuesday he wants to put on a fight card on 9 May, while WWE has resumed live broadcasts in Florida after the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, ruled professional wrestling is an “essential service” alongside hospitals, fire departments and law enforcement. A spokesperson for DeSantis, an ally of Trump, said WWE is “critical” to Florida’s economy.
There have also been reports baseball could start its season in May with players under strict quarantine and all games played in Arizona. However, many players have pushed back against the idea, saying they would not want to be isolated from their families for months on end.