As Europe continues to make efforts to recover from the spread of the coronavirus, there are some rumblings that a return to some normal operating sporting events could begin as training gets underway again and the expectation that many will happen without fans in attendance, but this has been happening within the US for a number of weeks now and other sports within the US are also in the process of gearing up for a return during a time in which the country is still being heavily hit by the effects of the coronavirus, but is it too soon for these sports to return to normal, and could the rush to get things going again cause more problems?
One of the next big events to take place within the US is within MMA as UFC 249 is set to take place this weekend after a number of cancellations to push the date back, and whilst the event will take place without any fans in attendance there are still fears that bringing the fighters, coaches, and teams may be a cause for concern. We have seen other sports such as those within the MLB discuss possibly moving the location in which they would compete – in late April the suggestion was that the MLB could move to Japan to finish out the season, but even from the offset there were many questions around whether or not this was a legitimate proposition.
Within Europe, Spain have given the green light for football players to return to training meaning that La Liga could be the first in major football to return – the same is also looking to be likely in due time within Germany as the Bundesliga is awaiting confirmation from the government before their players also return to training. Fears over whether or not a season will be drawn to conclusion have caused some panic as potential losses are growing as delays are extended – the Premier League within the UK have suggested that they are already facing losses of over £1 billion and if the season is scrapped altogether then that number may become much higher.
There are many eager for these events to get back underway – betting companies are also struggling due to the cancellations and postponements and although many have a fallback option as a list of casinos that aren’t gamstop blocked are linked to many of the popular betting sites, and their growth has done very well during the lockdown, a return to normal is still in their interest.
Eyes will be focused on the US over the coming weekends to see the impacts of getting things underway again, if there are any negative signs that things aren’t going so well it will cause further delay in other sporting events getting started again – with a growing focus on economic recovery rushing back in to a restart could spell disaster and could cause for a more damaging and longer lockdown.
