Sports leagues seek return to play but with no guarantees

Sports fans hoping for a fast return to the games they love might need to temper their expectations. Although sports leagues talk publicly about their desire to return to competition before summer, those are best-case scenarios.

Behind closed doors, they are hatching different potential plans: all 30 baseball teams playing in Arizona; home run contests to decide tie games; the Stanley Cup being hoisted in an empty arena that neither team calls home; end-of-season soccer standings decided by vote; college football games in spring.

Over the past week, The Associated Press interviewed more than 20 policymakers, coaches and players across the globe for their assessments of the situation. They all conceded that sports may not restart for months, if at all this year. Most agree that what’s needed is a drastic ramp-up in testing, a vaccine or some type of improved treatment to make players feel safe to compete.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert, has suggested that sports could conceivably return with no fans in arenas and constant testing for the players, who would likely need to be quarantined in hotels for weeks or months. Not all players are on board.

In other developments related to the coronavirus pandemic:

– Wayne Gretzky is optimistic the NHL will be able to resume at some point this summer. He tells The Associated Press he’s hopeful hockey and other sports will be able to come back from the coronavirus pandemic and serve as a sign that conditions are improving. Gretzky says he believes leaders in the U.S. and Canada will find a way to bring back hockey and other sports in June, July and August. The league is considering several options on trying to resume this season, including going directly to the playoffs at several neutral sites.

– Soccer has resumed in Turkmenistan with spectators as the Central Asian nation lifted a suspension of its national league. Around 500 people attended Sunday’s game in a 20,000-capacity stadium in the capital. The crowd size was broadly in line with typical domestic league games in Turkmenistan and as usual attendance was free. The game ended 1-1. The eight-team league was suspended on March 24 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Turkmenistan is one of the few countries in the world not to have reported any cases of the coronavirus.

– The stadium of English Premier League club Brighton has been converted into the south coast’s biggest drive-in coronavirus testing center. The appointment-only center has been put in place at the American Express Community Stadium as part of the drive to increase testing for National Health Service staff and other key workers. Officials say the center was scheduled to see more than 50 NHS frontline workers on Saturday, and they’ll have the results of their tests within 48 hours. Within a few days, the site should reach its capacity of up to 1,000 tests a day.

– Players and coaches for Italian soccer team Roma have waived their salary for four months. The team hasn’t played a competitive match since March 1 because of the pandemic, so the players and coaching staff will forgo salaries due to them for March, April, May and June.

– British horse racing’s most successful flat trainer of all time is recovering after contracting the coronavirus. Mark Johnston has been isolating since having the symptoms confirmed and his family says he is making good progress. In 2018, Johnston celebrated his 4,194th winner, which is the most of any trainer in British flat racing.

– A Japanese professor of infectious disease says he is “very pessimistic” the postponed Tokyo Olympics can open in 15 months. Kentaro Iwata of Kobe University says, “To be honest with you, I don’t think the Olympics is likely to be held next year.” The CEO of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee expressed similar reservations 10 days ago. Since then, the organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee have said there is no “Plan B” other than working for the Olympics to open on July 23, 2021.

– Australia’s top rugby players will demand a greater say in the future of the sport after agreeing to pay cuts designed to allow the game to weather the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Some players reportedly will give up as much as 60 percent of their income in the short term as Australian rugby faces uncertainty with major competitions shut down, perhaps for the rest of the year.

(For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item.)