The coronavirus is destroying everything

[wanderer2575]

Have any casinos been closed yet?

The three Detroit casinos (MGM Grand, MotorCity, and Greektown) are still open.  They have closed some areas such as the buffets and spas, but I believe the gaming floors are still open.  MotorCity has been constructing temporary walls and rearranging the locations of slots and table games to comply with the governor's order of no more than 250 people in a room; I don't know what the other casinos are doing.  The tribal-owned casinos are under sovereign governance and thus are exempt from the governor's order; I don't know what if anything they are doing differently.

[jeffandnicole]

Have any casinos been closed yet?

Harrahs Philly (Chester) and Rivers Casino in Philly are closed.

[Bruce]

Since the MLS season was cancelled two games in and the likely makeup days in fall run into all sorts of challenges (FIFA calendar dates, stadium conflicts with NFL for some teams, travel fatigue from using commercial flights), there's some speculation that the league might just cancel inter-conference play. This season was supposed to be the first to not have all teams playing all teams (even with a staggered home-and-away schedule), so this would be a huge change.

[Eth]

Since the MLS season was cancelled two games in and the likely makeup days in fall run into all sorts of challenges (FIFA calendar dates, stadium conflicts with NFL for some teams, travel fatigue from using commercial flights), there's some speculation that the league might just cancel inter-conference play. This season was supposed to be the first to not have all teams playing all teams (even with a staggered home-and-away schedule), so this would be a huge change.

That might be difficult, since some inter-conference games have already occurred (Colorado-Orlando, Nashville-Atlanta, Dallas-Montreal, etc.)

Obviously the answer is to just end the regular season and proceed this fall with playoff seeding based on the two weeks that have occurred.

[SP Cook]

As far as traveling goes, travel by car in the USA is going to be cheap and uncrowded (and quite possibly as traffic cop free as it has been since the crime against humanity of the NMSL was first passed), it will be a great year to do some traveling, particularly if you are just doing true road clinching, or just seeing other parts of the country.  As long as the basic hospitality infrastructure stays open (gas, restaurants, motels).  Some states are trying to close restaurants, but that is an over-reaction.  Air travel would not scare me as far as illness, but TSA foolishness will be ramped up.  I would not leave the country, again not because it is dangerous, but just because you might not get back in.

As to sports, some sports have a higher opinion of their role in the world than they deserve.  The market for finishing a winter sport season in August is really not there, other sports already have those slots (and, just as ESPN, et al, have a shortage now they don't need a glut (which would reduce the viewers for any one thing by dividing the market) later, pretty much they already know what they are going to show next August).

My predictions:

Baseball - Baseball over-reacted.  The players were already around one-another.  Even if they stopped ST, they could have just played scrimages, which is pretty much what the complex leagues do.  Sending the players home was just asking for trouble.  Restart about May 1.

NBA and NHL - Seasons over.

NFL - NFL draft is done on laptops.  Which, substitute land-line telephone for laptop, is how it was done until ESPN made it a "thing" .  NFL and college football start on time in August.

Horse racing - Horse races are being held (and shown in HD on Fox Sports One) and will continue to be.  Because the horses have to be cared for, the workers have to come to work anyway, no extra risk with closed grandstands.  Issue will be when the winter tracks are supposed to close and the spring tracks open, but its the same people traveling around anyway.  Kentucky Derby will be held on the first Saturday in May, as always.  Maybe before no fans, but held.

NASCAR and Indy Car - With the massive decline in NASCAR, 95% of the profit is in the over-bid TV contract.  They don't need the live gate.  They will be back sooner than anyone, with no fans for a few weeks.  As to Indy, the 500 pays for everything else, and they have to run it.  They will.

Golf - THE over-reaction.  Take out the fans and what happens at a golf tournament is not really that different from what happens at every golf course in the world.  It is 150 guys playing golf, a non-contact sport outdoors.  They should have continued.  The Masters will be the week of the PGA Championship, the tour will resume, no fans for a while.  PGA Championship, scheduled for San Francisco, which no longer practices basic public health law enforcement, will move to Louisville or West Palm Beach, where the PGA of A, owns the courses, and be held during the planned Olympics break.  The Open Championship ("British Open"  to the uneducated) will not be held.

Olympics - Toast.  Too many opinions, too many talking heads.   

[NWI_Irish96]

Horse racing - Horse races are being held (and shown in HD on Fox Sports One) and will continue to be.  Because the horses have to be cared for, the workers have to come to work anyway, no extra risk with closed grandstands.  Issue will be when the winter tracks are supposed to close and the spring tracks open, but its the same people traveling around anyway.  Kentucky Derby will be held on the first Saturday in May, as always.  Maybe before no fans, but held.

Rumor is that the Kentucky Derby is going to be pushed back to no earlier than June.  Official decision expected within the next couple days.

[renegade]

Have any casinos been closed yet?

The three Detroit casinos (MGM Grand, MotorCity, and Greektown) are still open.  They have closed some areas such as the buffets and spas, but I believe the gaming floors are still open.  MotorCity has been constructing temporary walls and rearranging the locations of slots and table games to comply with the governor's order of no more than 250 people in a room; I don't know what the other casinos are doing.  The tribal-owned casinos are under sovereign governance and thus are exempt from the governor's order; I don't know what if anything they are doing differently.

The gaming floors will close at 3 pm Eastern, and checkout for the hotels will be at 5 pm.  Governor Whitmer's orders.

[ixnay]

Have any casinos been closed yet?

Harrahs Philly (Chester) and Rivers Casino in Philly are closed.

Re Delaware's three racinos:  Delaware Park's is closed but Dover Downs' and Harrington's remain open.  As for live racing, only Dover Downs is in a current meet and they are racing today/tonight (DD races Mon thru Thurs but last Thursday's card was canceled).  DelPark and Harrington race live in the summer.   BTW Delaware only allows casinos at its horse tracks.

All six of Maryland's casinos (only one of which is a racino) are closed.  The racino is Ocean Downs near Ocean City, which races live in the summer.

ixnay

[ftballfan]

I've thought over the last few hours that this could lead to permanent Olympic changes, as in the Summer Games moving to 2022 (Tokyo), 2026 (Paris), 2030 (Los Angeles), and so on, with the Winter Games moving to 2024, 2028, and so on. This would also allow the IOC to potentially find a new host for the 2024 Winter Games as the 2022 Games were scheduled to be held in Beijing. I could see China banned from the next Olympiad for both Summer and Winter and from the next World Cup.

Have any casinos been closed yet?

The three Detroit casinos (MGM Grand, MotorCity, and Greektown) are still open.  They have closed some areas such as the buffets and spas, but I believe the gaming floors are still open.  MotorCity has been constructing temporary walls and rearranging the locations of slots and table games to comply with the governor's order of no more than 250 people in a room; I don't know what the other casinos are doing.  The tribal-owned casinos are under sovereign governance and thus are exempt from the governor's order; I don't know what if anything they are doing differently.

The gaming floors will close at 3 pm Eastern, and checkout for the hotels will be at 5 pm.  Governor Whitmer's orders.

Some of the tribal casinos are closing:
Gun Lake - closed through at least March 30
Firekeepers - closed until further notice (likely sometime in April)
Little River - closed through at least March 30 (the co-owned gas station across the street will remain open)
Bay Mills - closing on Friday through at least April 3
Not sure about Leelanau Sands, Turtle Creek, Odawa, Four Winds, or Soaring Eagle (but some of them have closed certain areas such as large restaurants)

From my experience, casinos tend to attract older crowds that smoke (in fact, I think I've seen people smoking at a casino while on oxygen)

[LM117]

NASCAR races postponed until May.

https://m.nascar.com/news-media/2020/03/16/nascar-schedule-update-statement-race-coronavirus/

[Bruce]

Since the MLS season was cancelled two games in and the likely makeup days in fall run into all sorts of challenges (FIFA calendar dates, stadium conflicts with NFL for some teams, travel fatigue from using commercial flights), there's some speculation that the league might just cancel inter-conference play. This season was supposed to be the first to not have all teams playing all teams (even with a staggered home-and-away schedule), so this would be a huge change.

That might be difficult, since some inter-conference games have already occurred (Colorado-Orlando, Nashville-Atlanta, Dallas-Montreal, etc.)

Obviously the answer is to just end the regular season and proceed this fall with playoff seeding based on the two weeks that have occurred.

That would be the worst possible scenario. We could add two intra-conference games to compensate or just void the match results to make up.

[Bruce]

I've thought over the last few hours that this could lead to permanent Olympic changes, as in the Summer Games moving to 2022 (Tokyo), 2026 (Paris), 2030 (Los Angeles), and so on, with the Winter Games moving to 2024, 2028, and so on. This would also allow the IOC to potentially find a new host for the 2024 Winter Games as the 2022 Games were scheduled to be held in Beijing. I could see China banned from the next Olympiad for both Summer and Winter and from the next World Cup.

Moving the Summer Olympics to conflict with the World Cup would not end well, even looking beyond the implications for soccer players.

[LM117]

Regarding WrestleMania...

https://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/article/wrestlemania-36-statement

[wanderer2575]

Have any casinos been closed yet?

The three Detroit casinos (MGM Grand, MotorCity, and Greektown) are still open.  They have closed some areas such as the buffets and spas, but I believe the gaming floors are still open.  MotorCity has been constructing temporary walls and rearranging the locations of slots and table games to comply with the governor's order of no more than 250 people in a room; I don't know what the other casinos are doing.  The tribal-owned casinos are under sovereign governance and thus are exempt from the governor's order; I don't know what if anything they are doing differently.

The gaming floors will close at 3 pm Eastern, and checkout for the hotels will be at 5 pm.  Governor Whitmer's orders.

According to MotorCity's website and press releases, their hotel is still open.  I don't know about the other two.

[ftballfan]

I've thought over the last few hours that this could lead to permanent Olympic changes, as in the Summer Games moving to 2022 (Tokyo), 2026 (Paris), 2030 (Los Angeles), and so on, with the Winter Games moving to 2024, 2028, and so on. This would also allow the IOC to potentially find a new host for the 2024 Winter Games as the 2022 Games were scheduled to be held in Beijing. I could see China banned from the next Olympiad for both Summer and Winter and from the next World Cup.

Moving the Summer Olympics to conflict with the World Cup would not end well, even looking beyond the implications for soccer players.

It wouldn't be an issue in 2022, as the World Cup is scheduled to be in November and December. 2026 and beyond might be an issue

[SP Cook]

Kentucky Derby moved to September, in what can only be called a $$ based decision.  Horse racing will probably be coming to an end when the winter tracks' meet times come to an end and they are not permitted to move on to the spring tracks.

[tdindy88]

I've thought over the last few hours that this could lead to permanent Olympic changes, as in the Summer Games moving to 2022 (Tokyo), 2026 (Paris), 2030 (Los Angeles), and so on, with the Winter Games moving to 2024, 2028, and so on. This would also allow the IOC to potentially find a new host for the 2024 Winter Games as the 2022 Games were scheduled to be held in Beijing. I could see China banned from the next Olympiad for both Summer and Winter and from the next World Cup.

I hope Tokyo doesn't lose the Olympics this year, it seems unfair for them to lose it due to something beyond their control. But the Olympics do run on four-year cycles so I don't think they would just move every Olympics two years further back from their year. Just as the Presidential Election is every four years and exactly that, the same is probably true for the summer and winter games.

Assuming that Paris keeps the 2024 games and L.A. gets the 2028 games, I would guess that Tokyo may have to wait until 2032 to hold the summer games. Instead of banning China from the Olympics I would take away the 2022 Winter Games from Beijing. I don't think its fair for China to be able to hold their Olympics while Japan gets denied for something that originated in China. The IOC should then force China to wait until at least 2034 to have the Winter Games return to Beijing so that Tokyo gets to go first before them.

In lieu of the 2022 Winter Games not being held in Beijing, I suggest either Salt Lake City or Calgary as a backup location, a city that has the facilities and can run the games pretty well. I would lean toward Salt Lake City since the IOC may want to be making up to NBC for cancelling the Tokyo games. There could be a few locations in Europe that could also hold the 2022 games I bet but since the '24 and '26 games are both in Europe I figured North America would be better.

[NWI_Irish96]

I've thought over the last few hours that this could lead to permanent Olympic changes, as in the Summer Games moving to 2022 (Tokyo), 2026 (Paris), 2030 (Los Angeles), and so on, with the Winter Games moving to 2024, 2028, and so on. This would also allow the IOC to potentially find a new host for the 2024 Winter Games as the 2022 Games were scheduled to be held in Beijing. I could see China banned from the next Olympiad for both Summer and Winter and from the next World Cup.

Moving the Summer Olympics to conflict with the World Cup would not end well, even looking beyond the implications for soccer players.

It wouldn't be an issue in 2022, as the World Cup is scheduled to be in November and December. 2026 and beyond might be an issue

I don't see moving the Olympics back 2 years and bumping back all the successive summer and winter games as realistic.  I think they will either have it this year, next year, or not at all. 

[1995hoo]

They won't change the summer/winter cycle. Aside from reasons already noted, the IOC feels very strongly about the Summer Games being on the four-year "Olympiad" cycle in the spirit of the ancient Olympics. Note how they call what is popularly known as the Summer Olympics the "Games of the ### Olympiad" (example: Los Angeles 1984 were the Games of the XXIII Olympiad), but they call what is popularly known as the Winter Olympics the "### Olympic Winter Games" (example: Calgary 1988 were the XV Olympic Winter Games). While it seems trivial, they feel very strongly about the "Olympiad" thing and they won't want to dispense with it.

[ftballfan]

$20 the 2022 Winter Olympics are held in either Vancouver, Calgary, or Salt Lake City, all of which have hosted them in the recent past (and China either boycotts or gets banned from competition). It's not as likely as above, but I could see Paris voluntarily moving back to 2028 and giving Tokyo the 2024 Games if they don't happen this year, which would bump Los Angeles to 2032 (which incidentally would be the 100th anniversary of Los Angeles' first Olympic hosting)

Speaking of international competition, I feel that China could get banned from qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. Precedent for this includes Germany and Japan being banned from the 1948 Olympics (both summer and winter) and the 1950 World Cup

[SP Cook]

Well the Germans and the Japanese of that time were in a bit of a different category, don't you think?

Anyway, there is a certain sub-category of sports, including the Olympics broadly and several sports within them, that are truly world tours, which is a little more than having a game or two in some far off place.  Formula One, tennis, golf to an extent, track, skiing, some others.  The idea that it is normal and right to travel to places like China, either for sports, or business, or tourism is coming to an end.

And it should.

[Alps]

We're blaming China for a new disease originating there? How are we punishing Africa for AIDS? Seriously, no one knew what we had here before it got out.

[AsphaltPlanet]

Well if the disease indeed did stem from unsanitary food storage handling practices in an outdoor food market in Wuhan I don't think it's totally unfair that China has to wear some of this.

It's kind of aggravating to me that China has recovered as quickly as they have only by using their totalitarian regime to control people, and it's cost the west it's freedom of mobility.

I know it's more complicated than that, but I don't think it's totally unfair to feel that way.

[hotdogPi]

It's kind of aggravating to me that China has recovered as quickly as they have only by using their totalitarian regime to control people, and it's cost the west it's its freedom of mobility.

South Korea is leveling off now.

[webny99]

I think it's completely right to be suspicious of what's going on in China.
They only let out what they want to let out, we may never have any idea of what it's actually like to be living there, especially in the areas hardest hit.