Florida’s Coronavirus Pandemic Problem: How Concerned Should NBA, MLS, WNBA Be?

If you’re an American sports fan, it’s been hard to ignore. Coronavirus cases in Florida are spiking as three major sports leagues are heavily relying on the state to start and restart their respective seasons and moving forward with their plans despite the latest news.

More than 4,000 tested positive for COVID-19 in the Sunshine State on Saturday, a record high for the third straight day, as Gov. Ron DeSantis pledges to keep the state open despite experts openly concerned that Florida could become the pandemic’s next epicenter in the United States. And for leagues relying on a safe Florida to resume play, there’s a justifiably growing sense of fear and agitation that they put their eggs in the wrong basket.

Though Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, last week praised the NBA’s restart bubble plan for the end of July at ESPN’s Wide World Of Sports in Orlando’s Disney
DIS
World, NBA commissioner Adam Silver reportedly acknowledged the recent surge in Florida cases on a call “with high-level team executives,” describing his tone as “resolute but somber.”

Many new cases, as players noted according to the ESPN report, were not in the Orlando area, but that could conceivably change before the 22 teams head to Disney in early July. For Major League Soccer, Disney will also host their 26-team league in an MLS Is Back tournament beginning on July 8. Several clubs, most recently Atlanta United, have seen players test positive in the past few weeks and will head to Orlando as Florida’s case load balloons.

The WNBA will also play its season in Florida, in July at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. But the league will be doing it with far fewer perks and amenities than the NBA, which could potentially impact players’ health going forward in some unforeseen way. Both basketball leagues said that players could opt out of their respective restarts without repercussions. Could the list of players who take that route grow the longer Florida’s increase lingers?

Major League Baseball isn’t taking any chances right now. After five players and three staffers tested positive in Philadelphia Phillies camp and a player showed coronavirus symptoms in Blue Jays camp, MLB on Saturday shuttered all Spring Training facilities in Florida and Arizona, where teams housed there also reported positive tests. The Phillies’ facility in Clearwater is just over 50 miles from where the WNBA plans to set up shop in Bradenton and 90 miles from the NBA and MLS at Disney. Things have gotten so bad in Florida that on Saturday, governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, a state that was once the world’s epicenter of the pandemic, said that the Yankees and Mets would train for a potential 2020 season at home rather than in Florida.

Is it possible that this is an aberration or a temporary blip and that Florida’s coronavirus caseload soon decreases? Sure, but medical experts are saying otherwise and leagues that are relying on the state to safely play their games there for the entertainment of hundreds of millions of fans around the world are now rightfully nervous, to say the least.

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