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SBJ Unpacks: Coronavirus -- NHL Seattle Plans On Hold


Kevin Durant and three other Brooklyn Nets players shared the sobering news just hours ago that they’ve been infected with the coronavirus.

Even as the White House proposed an $850 billion stimulus package intended to counter a bear market and the economic hardships Americans are now facing, reminders of the virus’ relentless impact were prevalent throughout the day. Early on, there was an increasing skepticism about Tokyo’s ability to pull off the Summer Games in July. By the end of the day, the PGA Championship headlined the ever-growing list of postponed events. And then Durant, one of the NBA’s most-marketable players and marquee talents, confirmed that he had the virus.

While every day we all search for a silver lining, we can't help but come back to the constant refrain from health officials: Things will get worse before they get better.

 

 

OUTBREAK PUSHING BACK NHL SEATTLE BUSINESS

  • NHL Seattle will not unveil the team’s new name this month because of sensitivities related to the coronavirus pandemic, SBJ’s Mark J. Burns reports. The club entered the new year hoping to have the name selected and ready for release in Q1, but those plans are being pushed back. The city of Seattle and state of Washington have been hit hardest by the outbreak with more than 900 cases and 50 deaths, and the new club said it wanted to be thoughtful about the timing of any celebration related to the name. The team still working through the trademark and legal process. 

  • Another impact of the outbreak: The club postponed its in-person general seat selection process earlier this month, saying this morning that it will continue to evaluate the process and timeline, with online seat selection being a possibility for fans in the future. The team is scheduled to begin play for the 2021-22 season.

  • A team spokesperson did say that it’s “business as usual” for the construction sites for the new arena at Seattle Center and Northgate Ice Centre, which includes the team’s HQ, training facilities and three ice rinks.

 

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP LATEST BIG EVENT TO BE POSTPONED

  • Scratch another major off the regularly scheduled 2020 golf calendar, as the PGA of America has now postponed the PGA Championship. The second major of the year had been set for TPC Harding Park from May 11-17, but the San Francisco area is now under a shelter-in-place order due to the spread of coronavirus. PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh hopes to reschedule the event at TPC Harding Park later this summer.

  • The postponement comes as the PGA Tour today canceled another wave of upcoming tournaments. The RBC Heritage (April 13-19), Zurich Classic of New Orleans (April 20-26), Wells Fargo Championship (April 27-May 3) and AT&T Byron Nelson (May 4-10) won't be played this year. These cancellations come after the Tour already cancelled events on all six of its tours through the Valero Texas Open set for March 30-April 5.

  • With The Masters also postponed, all eyes now turn to the USGA, which at least for today, according to SBJ's John Lombardo, is still planning to host the U.S. Open at Winged Foot from June 18-21. Winged Foot is located around five miles away from a coronavirus containment zone currently set up in New Rochelle, N.Y.

  • Another big event on the golf calendar, the Ryder Cup, looks to still be on the docket for the fall, despite some reports today to the contrary. The PGA of America, which operates the event in the U.S., posted tonight from its official Ryder Cup Twitter feed: "Reports today that the 2020 @RyderCup is expected to be postponed are inaccurate."

 

 

IOC COMMITTED TO TOKYO, BUT SKEPTICISM GROWS

  • Olympic insiders reported a growing acceptance that the Tokyo Games simply cannot happen as planned, despite the IOC’s statement today that it “remains fully committed” to this summer's event. The IOC noted there are still “four months to go,” but SBJ’s Ben Fischer reports that experts don’t believe the normal preparations can be made with the unpredictability of the virus’ course.

  • Insiders say the situation for U.S. and European athletes is untenable. Most Americans haven’t yet qualified, and qualified or not, it’s hard to train under “social distancing” measures that have closed gyms and college campuses nationwide. Also, Olympic business has started, including the shipping of support equipment from the U.S. to Japan. Like an industrial supply chain, there’s a "sequence of trigger events that have to fall like dominoes,” as one Olympic industry vet said, and it’s already being interrupted.

  • The IOC is trying to move things along parallel paths, continuing to take all the steps that would allow the Games to proceed. That’s the part we’re hearing about. But an alternative path, postponing them one year until summer 2021, now is in play, insiders say. That brings its own problems and, just a few months ago would have been derided as impossible. But just about everything is being reconsidered.

 

DIVING WORLD CUP STILL ON THE CALENDAR

  • FINA still has not canceled the Diving World Cup, which is scheduled for April 21-26 in Tokyo, according to SBJ's Chris Smith. It is the last event at which nations can earn qualifying spots for the Olympic diving events this summer. USA Diving has already qualified for half of the maximum possible spots and is planning to qualify for the remainder at the World Cup.

  • FINA recently rescheduled events in Trieste (Italy), and Rotterdam (Netherlands) from March until May and June, and last week the governing body created a COVID-19 task force to assess the risks associated with upcoming competitions. A diving insider said that it is unclear at this point how FINA will adjust the qualifying procedure should the World Cup be canceled.

  • USA Diving’s selection for which divers go to Tokyo is slated to take place at the Olympic trials from June 14-21 in Indianapolis. The U.S. NGB recently suspended all activities for 30 days and indefinitely suspended its regional championship events. USA Diving’s leadership is in the process of constructing contingency plans for its Olympic qualifying procedure, and newly instated president Lee Michaud said he expects to have a firm set of backup plans in place by Monday.

 

 

CORONAVIRUS NOT STOPPING NCAA WORK ON NIL

  • The NCAA committee studying issues pertaining to name, image, and likeness decided today to move forward on the issue of athlete rights, SBJ’s Michael Smith reports. The first round of recommendations on how to implement NIL rights must be submitted to the NCAA Board of Governors by late April.

  • The NIL committee, co-chaired by Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman and Ohio State AD Gene Smith, had their first teleconference on Monday since the coronavirus outbreak led to mass cancellations and campus closings. They had another call today to finalize their intent to stay on schedule, despite the challenges they’re facing on their own campuses.

  • Gene Smith: “It's work that has to be done. There's a continuity of thought that we didn’t want to break up, levels of agreement that were being achieved. If we stop now, we will lose that.”

 

TOM BRADY GIVES OUTLETS SOME NON-VIRUS NEWS

  • ESPN’s Mike Greenberg was interviewing Dan Orlovsky and Marcus Spears on “Get Up!” at 8:44am ET today when Tom Brady tweeted that he was leaving the Patriots. Almost immediately, Greenberg chimed in: “Dan, I’m going to cut you off for a second. I’m sorry. We have breaking news.” ESPN then cut to a breaking news graphic followed by a two-shot of Greenberg and NFL reporter Jeff Darlington, speaking from his home in South Florida.

  • So began a day when ESPN’s daytime programming did what it does best, SBJ’s John Ourand reported -- covering a breaking news story all day long from every angle, including interviews with many of Brady’s former teammates, like Tedy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Damien Woody and Rob Ninkovich. Studio shows finally had a trending topic that had nothing to do with coronavirus. One couldn’t look at ESPN and not see images of Brady or Bill Belichick the entire day.

  • Given all the free agent moves, NFL Network was also in a live programming mode, focused on Brady. NFL Net put its programming out with a skeleton staff -- it has seen a 50-75% reduction in staff required to physically come into its L.A. and New Jersey-based studios. “We are spreading out talent across our campus, utilizing all our studio space, taking advantage of remotely controlled cameras, talent who have home cameras and juggling edit bays and control rooms while doing extensive cleaning in between shifts,” said Alex Riethmiller, head of communications for the NFL’s media group. “We are constantly discovering various efficiencies on a daily basis that allow us to keep people at a safe distance from one another while continuing to cover all the news happening across the NFL.”

  • Other sports networks, like FS1 and NBCSN, are not set up to deliver news and stayed with taped programming. This afternoon as ESPN and NFL Net were all-Brady-all-the-time, FS1 was airing replays of XFL games, NBCSN was showing motorsports replays and CBSSN was showing replays of college basketball. All three networks had bottom line crawls that mentioned the Brady news. For ESPN, though, it seemed like a relief. Finally, there was news that didn’t have anything to do with a pandemic.

 

After breaking during "Get Up," ESPN spent most of today discussing Brady's exit from the Patriots

 

SPORTSBOOKS GO GLOBAL TO STAY BUSY

  • Sportsbooks in the U.S. are finding new ways for their customers to wager in the absence of traditional sports, SBJ's Bill King reports. All the leading sportsbooks raised the profile of their offerings on Saturday’s UFC event, with FanDuel putting a particularly interesting twist on it, creating parlays around groupings, including three Brazilian fighters or three grappling specialists.

  • William Hill yesterday rolled out this list of leagues and competitions on which it will take action in New Jersey:

    • Argentina: Superliga, Copa de la Superliga, Primara B Nacional
    • Brazil: Serie A, Serie B
    • Belarus: Belarusian Cup, Premier League
    • Gibraltar: Premier Division
    • Hungary: NB II
    • Kazakhstan: Premier League
    • Kosovo: Superliga
    • Russia: Russian National Football League
    • Serbia: Prva League
    • Turkey: 1 Lig
    • Ukraine: Persha Liga

  • Of course, with the situation around the globe so fluid, some of those leagues may already be postponed, or are headed that way the near future. But when there are games in those leagues and competitions, William Hill will take bets on them. “It doesn’t compare with what people want to bet on,” said William Hill U.S. CEO Joe Asher. “But certainly some people are betting on that. We’re just trying to do the best we can with the cards we’ve been dealt. People are clearly still interested in betting. Some people are. Others are probably at the grocery story trying to get that last roll of toilet paper.”

  • For lots more from Asher, check out today’s episode of our SBJ Unpacks podcast.

 

A DAY AT THE RACES CONTINUES

  • Many thoroughbred tracks around the country plan to continue running races this weekend without fans and with only essential personnel, including Santa Anita Park outside Los Angeles, Aqueduct in Queens, Oaklawn in Arkansas, Fairgrounds in New Orleans and Gulfstream in South Florida, SBJ’s Liz Mullen reports. Veterinarians believe horses cannot carry the coronavirus, National Thoroughbred Racing Association President & CEO Alex Waldrop said, but officials should refrain from transferring horses between tracks. Waldrop: "The movement of those horses would only create potentially more problems as people move from place to place. So we have urged people to keep those horses in place."

  • With tracks racing and people betting on the races online, the sport has an opportunity to get in front of more fans. Waldrop: "We do know that many racetracks have moved to a no-spectator policy and we think that's a great idea for those tracks that can do it. It's an opportunity for racing to sell itself to a new audience because there is a dearth of sports betting out there.” The vast majority of wagering is done off-track now and Aqueduct saw good business this past weekend with $17.5 million wagered on its races from Friday-Sunday. That number compares with $19.2 million during a comparable weekend in March 2019.

  • With the Kentucky Derby postponed until September, no one knows whether the two other Triple Crown races will be held before or after The Run for the Roses. The Maryland Jockey Club, which operates the Preakness, said in a statement that it was working with state and local governments, industry participants and media partners to determine the "most appropriate time" to run the race. New York Racing Association CEO & President Dave O'Rourke said the Belmont Stakes is taking a similar approach.

 

Racing will continue at Santa Anita this weekend -- albeit without fans and with limited staff

 

ESPORTS LEAGUES SET TO BEGIN AGAIN

  • Overwatch League will restart its season with online-only matches this weekend, SBJ's Adam Stern reports. The league canceled all in-person events for March and April amid the pandemic, but it will re-start league play Saturday at 2:00pm ET with the San Francisco Shock playing the Seoul Dynasty. For this portion of the season, OWL is shaking up its usual Pacific Conference and Atlantic Conference and moving to three geographically based groups. Teams in each group will only play each other to minimize internet connection issues. One region will be teams from the western half of the U.S. plus the Dynasty, which currently has its players based in L.A.; the second will be eastern half U.S. teams plus the two European teams; and the third is the four Chinese teams.

  • The League of Legends series in North America and Europe will resume their seasons with online-only events starting this weekend. Many in the esports industry are hopeful that the competitive gaming events will see an uptick in interest and viewership over the coming weeks as millions of people around the globe spend added time at home amid the pandemic. 

 

FIGHT CARDS ON HOLD, BUT FOR HOW LONG?

  • Dana White had been defiant that UFC fight cards would continue during the coronavirus pandemic, telling "SportsCenter" on Sunday: "The only thing that’s gonna stop us is a complete government shutdown where everybody is confined to their homes." After the White House on Monday recommended no gatherings of 10 or more people, White changed his mind and postponed the next three events (through March 11).

  • ESPN Radio Las Vegas’ Steve Cofield shed some light on White's efforts to keep the UFC going, including hasty plans to find a venue for this coming Saturday: “He said that it all came together. They had it done, finished. Card was good to go. It was a tribal land casino in Oklahoma. He said he lined up flights for everyone -- private jets, for everyone to come over, to get there, to make it happen.” But after the White House recommendation yesterday? “Dana said he started doing the math. He said two fighters, cornermen, judges, we’re already over 10, I guess we can’t do it. That was the nail in the coffin.” White did tell Cofield that UFC has no layoffs planned.

  • Fight cards have also been canceled by Top Rank, Showtime and Matchroom Boxing through April, but SI's Chris Mannix writes boxing -- like MMA -- has a "small advantage over some of the other sports impacted by the coronavirus." If the CDC raises the recommended limits on gatherings in two months, promoters "can put on shows, at least shows without fans in attendance." Veteran promoter Lou DiBella: "The only advantage boxing has right now, is that except for a few guys, live gates don’t matter.” Top Rank has a gym in Las Vegas that Bob Arum says can put on televised events, while Matchroom is "already contemplating a series" of smaller shows that would air on Sky Sports.

 

 

SPEED READS

  • Nationally-branded fitness clubs like L.A. FitnessOrangetheory and Gold’s Gym have had to shut the doors at their brick-and-mortar locations with the coronavirus pandemic, and that has created opportunity for one sports/fitness stock in particular -- Peloton. On Monday, when the stock market had it worst day in more than 30 years, Peloton was up 13%. That climb continued on Tuesday, with the stock up 14%. While Peloton has closed most of its studio sets and showrooms to the public, the company will continue to produce classes from a London studio. Among those in sports business who have told SBJ about their affinity for Peloton are BodyArmor’s Michael Fedele, AEG’s Russ Silvers, Fox Sports’ Shannon Spake and the Red Bulls’ Marc de Grandpre. SBJ also profiled the company’s origins and strategy last year.

  • NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly today admitted the coronavirus “blindsided a lot of us in terms of its severity and impact.” Daly, appearing on ESPN Radio Chicago, said the NBA’s suspension last Wednesday drove home the fact that it was time to “be a little more proactive than reactive.” He noted before the NBA decision came down, Gary Bettman had been in touch frequently with his commissioner counterparts at the NBA, MLBMLS and NFL, but that has changed somewhat now that each of those leagues has halted play. "We’re kind of in the hunkering down stage at this point so we’ve been dealing more closely with our clubs and less with the other leagues.”

  • The release today of “MLB The Show 20” comes at a time when people are at home and craving entertainment -- including the players themselves. Mets 1B Pete Alonso issued a challenge on Twitter: “50k retweets and I’ll download MLB The Show 20 and challenge teammates and other guys around the league. I’d figure out a way to stream as well!" At presstime, Alonso had just over 28,000 retweets. Among those looking to take on Alonso in the game: Twins P Trevor May, Blue Jays P Anthony Kay and Pirates P Derek Holland. The game's publisher, Sony Studios, also seemed keen to assist, tweeting: "We can help you with that!"

  • Longtime Mavericks radio play-by-play man Chuck Cooperstein believes the NBA’s silver lining amid the coronavirus delay is an opportunity to permanently play the season from Christmas Day through August. He told ESPN Radio Dallas, “It makes a heck of a lot of sense. ... Basically, the NBA has taken that approach anyway with the way they approach the Christmas games. … You have less exposure to football. Your major competition is regular season Major League Baseball. It’s an absolute win-win for the NBA to make that move.”

  • ESPN’s Buster Olney lays out “six creative ways MLB can make the best of a tough situation.” Among the highlights: identify neutral sites in the postseason -- in the same way the NFL has a host city for the Super Bowl – to avoid cold weather climates should the season run into November/December. Then present a “refreshed product” when the season resumes. Players “could wear mics on the field, in the dugouts, in the bullpens, reaching fans like never before.”
  • The NBA has been active in getting current and former players to do PSAs around things like social distancing, hand washing, health and fitness. Among those who have filmed messages are Steph CurryTrae YoungGrant HillJayson TatumDamian LillardDonovan Mitchell, Magic JohnsonDwight PowellVictor Oladipo and Rudy GobertZion Williamson appeared in a photo PSA. 
  • CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander went behind the scenes in the days and hours leading up to the NCAA Tournament’s cancellation, complete with a timeline of how NCAA Senior VP/Men’s Basketball Dan Gavitt and his team came to their final decision.

 

SBJ UNPACKS -- WEATHERING COVID-19

  • ICYMI: Check out the most recent editions of our "SBJ Unpacks" podcasts around COVID-19:

    • Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill U.S., joins to discuss COVID-19’s impact on sports betting.
    • SBJ's Bill King and Ben Fischer talk about how coronavirus is disrupting Olympic qualification events and what that may mean for the Tokyo Games.
    • Adam Stern discusses NASCAR’s decision to postpone upcoming races.

 

 

 

Something related to coronavirus and sports business catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it.