Cautious optimism glimmers with sports leagues eyeing timeline to reopen

A faint wind of optimism has begun blowing as leagues like the NBA and MLB have taken baby steps closer to getting their sports back underway.

There are varying caveats, one of them being that the unpredictability of the coronavirus has prompted leagues to revise plans of resuming activities at once-targeted dates.

There’s also different levels of governments across North America that have mismatched ideas for how and when their communities can allow once-normal activity. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced Wednesday the state would modify its stay-at-home order, making it less strict but nonetheless extending it to May 15. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is allowing some businesses to reopen, while the outlook of getting “back to normal” has been less ambitious in places such as California.

Meanwhile, the NBA announced this week a tentative plan to allow teams to return to practice facilities with players working out only on a limited basis. Major League Baseball’s ideas for starting its season have evolved into a recent proposal to have three 10-team divisions, as reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

“This is the first time where there’s so much optimism among baseball officials,” Nightengale told Arizona Sports’ Doug & Wolf on Wednesday. “Before, it was a situation where it was a flip of a coin if we can play baseball or not. Now everybody really believes that, ‘Hey, we are going to play baseball.’ So I think they’re hoping to get people underway by late June, they’d love to start the season.

“If not, by that July 4 weekend, and then go from there. So they think that as long as there’s testing available for everybody, they can make this work.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the health expert who has been at the forefront of America’s efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, said via The New York Times that it’s possible some sports will just have to do without a season in 2020 entirely. He cautioned that it would be difficult and potentially not viable to bring sports back with fans.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo was asked by Arizona Sports’ Burns & Gambo on Tuesday whether he feels the optimism that there will be a season this year.

“I am desperately hoping so, and I think everybody in every industry is doing the same thing that I am,” he said. “I will say that the NFL Draft gave us a little bit of a sports fever. It was in real time. It was a really nice time to sit down and just get caught up with what was going on and have it be real. The things I’ve been watching have been older material. So I think that kind of kickstarted a hope or overall hope in our country to get things moving in a good direction.

“I haven’t heard anything concrete. I’m obviously reading and seeing the various things that are popping around from different sports. Everybody’s holding tight right now, but the fact that we’re talking about it, the fact that we’re getting a positive vibe, good energy, maybe it’s a sign of things to come. I don’t know, though.”

Coyotes forward Christian Fischer joined media members Tuesday in a video conference call and referenced the aforementioned NBA plan to get players back to practice. The NHL has many teams that share arenas with NBA teams, giving Fischer optimism for what the NBA’s back-to-work initiative could mean for hockey.

“[The NBA] said that they could kind of start using their facilities on their own or something like that,” Fischer said. “We saw that and that’s obviously a positive — I think — hopefully a positive motion for us because we obviously use the same facilities as them or most of them. So I think we’re hoping we can follow suit along that and be able to get back to the rink and skate and kind of be back together, even if it’s small groups.

“I think at this point, we’ll take anything. It’s promising I guess to hear those things, baseball and basketball and the NFL doing all the things online. So I think it’s all promising, right? And now we just kind of sit and wait and let the guys that are kind of working 24/7 at this to give us the decision.”

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