SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead -- MLBPA On The Clock

NBA players are asking pointed questions today about the terms of the league’s restart in Orlando, and it seems likely that at least some stars will opt out. Yesterday, Wall Street remembered there’s a pandemic on and stocks plummeted.

Combined with reports of rising COVID-19 cases in some states, this week has brought stark reminders that nobody flipped the "off" switch. It's still out there, and still dangerous. There's been an undeniable sense of momentum around sports coming back lately, but it will be difficult and frustrating at times.

LATEST MLB OWNERSHIP PROPOSAL CALLS FOR 72-GAME SEASON

• The MLBPA late this afternoon received the latest formal proposal from owners calling for a 72-game season. The regular season would start on July 14 and end on Sept. 27, per USA Today's Bob Nightengale.
  
  
• Players would "receive a 80% guarantee of their prorated salaries with a postseason, 70% with no postseason." 
  
  
• The deadline for the MLBPA to agree to the proposal is Sunday night. However, Nightengale reports the union is "expected to formally reject the proposal" before then. This represents the third exchange of proposals between the two sides this week.

OPTIMISM WANING OVER NBA RESTART?

• Hours after the report that a significant number of NBA players are "disappointed that everyone wasn’t given the opportunity to vote on whether to restart" the season, Bleacher Report's Howard Beck cites an agent saying that two-thirds of the top 40 players invited to Orlando would "refuse to play under the proposed restrictions."
  
  
• According to Beck, Nets guard Kyrie Irving has been a "driving force" in organizing calls between players and voicing concern.
  
  
• Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes reports some players have been "reluctant to express their views in fear of opposing the superstars who are adamant about playing if proper safety measures are in place."

Irving reportedly has been a "driving force" in organizing calls between players and voicing concern over the restart

PREMIER LEAGUE ALL-IN ON VIRTUAL WATCH PARTIES, FAKE CROWD NOISE

• When the EPL resumes play on Wednesday, virtual watch parties will now be part of the experience, writes SBJ’s Mark J. Burns.
  
  
• NBC Coordinating Producer Pierre Moossa said those feeds will be “fed into (stadiums’) JumboTron” so fans can view matches, albeit virtually. Moossa also said that teams may also “use some very specific customization of the stadium experience,” too. He added that tarps, which will be customized based on the home team, will cover the first tiers that fans will see on television.
  
  
• Moossa: “All the different sports are trying to find ways to cover the game behind closed doors, but as you get down to it, certain sports are more tied or associated with certain experiences than others. Ultimately, we felt strongly that the Premier League experience needed to have -- and was a better experience -- with the enhanced atmospheric audience.” That will include fake crowd noise provided by EA Sports. 

HEAT SEASON-TICKET RENEWALS HOLDING STEADY AMID PANDEMIC

• One of the few positives of business being frozen for the past three months is that America’s absolute need for sports has never been more apparent, writes SBJ's Terry Lefton. What was a longing is now a craving. A recent manifestation of this are the season-ticket sales of the Heat, renewing at around 95%. 
  
  
• Exec VP & Chief Commercial Officer John Vidalin said that’s about the same level as the prior year, but considering the pandemic, the highest U.S. unemployment rates since the 1930s, and that no one knows when the Heat or any NBA team will again have fans at their games, it's a hopeful reminder that fan is short for fanatic.
  
  
• “We started early, we were having a good year on court, and consistently selling, even recently, with our entire season-ticket group working remotely,” Vidalin said. “You never expect to be in the kind of position everyone is, but their training is showing now,” Vidalin said. 

UNIQUE CIRCUMSTANCES CREATE OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW TENNIS COMPETITION

• With the ATP and WTA tours suspended, tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglu put his free time to use. He concocted the Ultimate Tennis Showdown, which begins Saturday at his tennis academy in southern France, playing each weekend (with no fans in attendance) until a July 12 final. 
• UTS is not an exhibition, rather a competition that Mouratoglu hopes will continue beyond the pandemic, growing to coexist alongside the tours. Mouratoglu, who coaches Serena Williams and Coco Gauff, thinks UTS’ rules and format will differentiate it from traditional tennis, leading to shorter matches and more emphasis on players’ personalities and interactions.
• “It would great for the whole industry to find space for us,” Mouratoglu told SBJ’s Bret McCormick. “But we are far from there, yet. We don’t know how tennis is going to look in the future, how the calendar is going to look in the future. There are a lot of question marks."

BASS ANGLER CIRCUIT BACK IN ACTION

• They’re weighing their catches while wearing masks, but multiple tours of the American Bass Anglers are back on the water, after the coronavirus caused it to miss between 50-75 events in April and May, writes SBJ's Terry Lefton. Longtime ABA President & Owner Morris Sheehan said that most of the events missed were in Virginia, Maryland and the Northeast. ABA sanctions a remarkable 900 events across multiple divisions this year and still will hold 80 -85% of them, Sheehan said.
   
• Like many medical workers, Sheehan said one of the most difficult things was acquiring supplies. He ended up making his own hand sanitizer after a fruitless three-week search.
• ABA returns to the Northeast for the first time on June 27 on Lake Champlain in upstate New York. On land, fans and participants are required to stand six feet apart. Sheehan: "The thing more people need to know is that fishing from a boat is the ultimate form of social distancing. The next person is half a mile down the lake.’’  

WORKING FROM HOME WITH GOLFNOW’S JEFF FOSTER

• GolfNow Senior VP Jeff Foster has been overseeing the NBC Sports Group-owned online tee time service remotely from his recently moved-into Orlando home since March. “I did not set up a house with a personal office ... and so I'm literally bouncing around from room to room,” Foster told SBJ's David Rumsey. And naturally, observing action on the neighborhood golf course from his backyard has provided Foster with some workday entertainment.
  
  
• At the peak of pandemic closures in March, about 50% of courses GolfNow works with temporarily shut down, but the service still saw an uptick in rounds booked and new golfers, as the sport was one of the few activities still allowed in many places. “We had to operate like we're running the day-to-day business, yet do it from home and then try and figure out how to help golfers and operators work through all various restrictions and asks by the local governments,” Foster said.
  
  
• Foster has been so impressed with how the 500 or so GolfNow employees have managed working remotely that he is in no rush to get back into the office. “One of the biggest learnings we’ve had, besides the productivity, is that we can work remotely and be as effective,” he said. Foster: “What we used to do, do you need to do it that way anymore?”
  
  
• Besides a few weekend golf rounds and spending time with his kids, Foster has enjoyed walking in his neighborhood as much as he can. "I'm trying to do as any calls as I can while I'm moving. … I’m trying to encourage everyone: ‘get outside, you need it.’ You can still do what you're doing.” 

Foster enjoys working from his back porch with a view of the neighborhood golf course

• Want to share what your work-from-home setup is like? Reach out to SBJ's David Rumsey.

OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTORS: GUIDING LIGHT

• Tonight's op-ed contribution is from Attention Span Media CEO Josh McHugh, who asks, "What will be the 'new normal' of the sports experience, and what does the path look like between now and then?"
  
  
• "Creating plausible scenarios even a few weeks out is extremely difficult amid the flood of fragmented signals. But stadium design is a long game, and we can start envisioning the post-pandemic landscape by looking at COVID-19’s impact on several of the technological and sociological forces of change giving shape to the present, the near-term future and long-term future of sports."
  
  
• To read McHugh's full contribution, click here.

CHECK OUT THIS WEEK'S SBJ

• Don’t miss this week’s issue of SBJ. Meanwhile, if you’d like to receive the print issue at your home office, update your delivery address at any time within your account settings here. If you have any questions about how and where to receive your print copy of SBJ, please email help@sportsbusinessdaily.com.

SPEED READS

• The NHL is hoping to restart play “in or around August 1” after announcing training camps will open on July 10, according to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. It was “important” for the NHL to announce the date for the opening of training camps because there is a large number of players “overseas that have to make travel plans.” The July 10 date “could still change if negotiations drag on in Phase 3 and Phase 4, and those negotiations are just in their infancy right now.”
  
  

• Wake Forest AD John Currie tells the Winston-Salem Journal that his school “isn’t interested in nor has it been approached about moving its September football game against Notre Dame away from Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte” amid the pandemic. Currie: “Candidly, the demand for tickets would far exceed what we can fill at BB&T Field, especially if we have to take -- as we would assume now -- some sort of social distancing parameters. … Obviously with a stadium like Bank of America Stadium, you’ve got a lot more room to spread people out if you need to.”
  
  
• “I’ve never been to the state of Illinois in my life.” That was an interesting line from Ashton Washington, the Fighting Illini football program's new director of high school relations. Appearing on the “BTN Take Ten Podcast,” Washington, who was hired on May 19, said getting a job during the pandemic was a “blessing in disguise.” Washington, who was previously with the XFL before it folded, will be the first woman on the Illini staff. 
  
  

• Members of the executive council of the WNBPA spoke with team representatives Thursday night, which means the league and the player's union "could be near an agreement on the season," according to a source cited by ESPN. The league is "projected to have a 22-game regular season, starting July 24, with play at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla." 
  
  
• The CFL may be the latest league to embrace the "bubble" concept to salvage a 2020 season. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie said a "potential hub approach" is "being discussed" with the CFLPA. But Ambrosie cautioned the outlook is still not great for the gate-driven league. "We are a bums-in-seats league. That is the driving force that makes our league special and what makes it great. It won't be easy." 

NEWS YOU NEED FROM SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY

• During this crisis impacting the sports business, we want everyone to be up-to-date on the latest news and information. Select stories from Sports Business Daily are free, outside the paywall, for the foreseeable future. Below are today's headlines:
  
  
  • NFL's $250M Pledge To Bolster League's Social Justice Platforms
  • PGA Tour Returns With Quiet, Fan-Less Charles Schwab Challenge
  • Blue Jays Still Hopeful Of Playing In Toronto, But Issues Remain
  • Source: Seahawks Consider Half-Filled CenturyLink Field Amid Virus
  • Texas AD Chris Del Conte Leaning On Task Force To Navigate Pandemic

SBJ UNPACKS -- THE ROAD AHEAD

• Check out the most recent editions of our "SBJ Unpacks" podcasts around COVID-19:
  
  
  • PGA Tour Senior VP Andy Levinson shares insight into the Tour's return to the links and what lies ahead.
  • Food services consultant Chris Bigelow on how social distancing policies and other aspects of a changed world will impact sports venues.
  • Turnkey Search Chairman & Founder Len Perna on the state of the sports job market.

NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR SBJ GAME CHANGERS!

Online nominations for Game Changers are now open. We’ll be accepting nominations through midnight June 21. The Game Changers event will be Oct. 27-28, and a special section will run in SBJ in the Oct. 19 issue.

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.