It almost doesn’t seem possible, but the United States will be without its professional team sports for the foreseeable future. Fear over the coronavirus and an effort to slow down the spread of the disease has caused leagues all across the globe to delay, postpone, or cancel certain events.
Fans in the United States have seen five major American sports get shut down, and it’s unclear how long this will last. Here is a look at some of the news surrounding four of the major sports.
NBA Has Two Players Test Positive
The National Basketball Association was the first sport to suspend their season indefinitely after one of their players tested positive for the coronavirus. Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive on Wednesday, which led to the shut down of the league.
A day later, it was determined that teammate Donovan Mitchell also tested positive for the disease. The Board of Governors in the NBA and the NBA Players Association have asked that commissioner Adam Silver wait at least 30 days before making a decision about resuming play.
NCAA Shuts Down Athletics
The NCAA made the tough decision to cancel the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments on Thursday afternoon, rather than postpone them to a later date. The NCAA went a step further by canceling all remaining winter and spring championships as well.
That led to several schools shutting down their spring sports entirely, leaving senior college athletes without a chance to finish out their career on the playing field.
The NCAA is set to lose close to one billion dollars with the cancellation of March Madness, with almost $800 million of that coming from television networks.
MLB Delays Opening Day
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced on Thursday afternoon that spring training would be shut down immediately. Along with that announcement, Manfred also stated that the start of the 2020 MLB regular season would be delayed at least two weeks as the league tries to get more information about the coronavirus.
All 30 teams around the league were scheduled to begin their season on March 26, but the season opener will now get pushed into April. Teams are able to make their own decisions regarding what to do with their players until spring training opens back up, and the league is meeting to decide how to go about paying Major and Minor League players.
PGA Tour Postpones The Masters
Augusta National announced on Friday morning that it was postponing the 2020 Masters Tournament. The Masters was supposed to take place on April 9-12, but it will not be held amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.
There currently is no timetable for establishing a new date to play The Masters Tournament, but it would likely take place sometime this fall.
The PGA Tour has also decided to cancel the next three events, meaning that no golf will be played in the United States on the professional level until at least April 16.