Thanks to coronavirus, sports are now a part of a real-life Stephen King novel
The panic, fear and overreaction that is currently sweeping our nation, and draining us of our hand sanitizer reserves, is about to get worse.
This according to a few people who have lived it one month before the Coronavirus 2020 Tour made its way across the Pacific pond.
The Japanese women’s national soccer team is here to play the United States in the final of the SheBelieves Cup on Wednesday night in Frisco.
Per the coach of the Japanese national team, Asako Takakura, they have been advised to remain in their hotel rooms unless they must go out. They are to return to their native Japan after the match.
“We heard the news there are more [coronavirus] patients in Japan. It’s increasing in Japan,” Takakura said Tuesday after a training session. “There is not a huge difference [between the U.S. and Japan]. The situation changes day by day.”
North American sport is getting sick, and the biggest casualty won’t be just here but could be the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
In Takakura’s position, she can’t say much and on Tuesday she did her best to answer (duck?) my questions. Of course, since she was speaking through an interpreter should could have been saying, “Send help!” and I would not have known.
According to a handful of the Japanese media party that covers this team, what we are experiencing here with mass cancellations, postponements for games, parades, concerts and school closings is a beginning. Their fun started about one month ago.
Sports are now a part of a real-life Stephen King novel, and a fundamental component to a panic we collectively are too stupid to stop.
Preparing for games that may be canceled
When the U.S. women’s national team hosts Japan on Wednesday there will be a capacity crowd of 20,000 in an area that now has coronavirus. On March 10, a Frisco man tested positive for the virus and has given the disease to his wife and 3-year-old child.
As the cases have increased, so have the cancellations.
The Ivy League announced it canceled its post season basketball tournaments. Santa Clara County in California implemented a ban on all which could impact where the NHL’s San Jose Sharks play their final home games of the season.
All soccer matches in the top leagues in Spain, France, Portugal and some in Germany will be played in empty stadiums for the next few weeks. Italy is shutting down all sporting events until April 3.
While leagues in foreign countries have deliberately hosted games in empty stadiums, such a step is foreign to North America.
All of the four major sports leagues have implemented rules restricting media access in the locker rooms, but have “discussed” other measures.
“People are concerned and rightfully so,” U.S midfielder Julie Ertz said Tuesday. “We don’t have any control over that. We know the health and safety of not just our team, but everyone, is important.”
Canceling, or even postponing, a major sporting event is a potentially multi-million dollar loss. String multiple canceled, or postponed, games together and sports leagues are looking at a depression.
There is one thing a big-time sports league values more than a fan’s safety, their money.
And what happens when an athlete actually tests positive for the virus itself?
The future of the 2020 Olympics
By the time the Japanese women’s national team landed in the United States for this tournament, they were all accustomed to what we are now experiencing.
The world has changed considerably since they left on March 2. On Monday, the Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan announced that the start of its regular season will be postponed with the hope that it will begin by April 3.
It is holding its spring training “behind closed” doors as fans are not permitted.
The 2020 Summer Olympics are scheduled to start on Friday, July 24. A member of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee told The Wall Street Journal that the Olympics could be postponed by one or two years.
Talking to members of the Japanese press corps in Frisco on Tuesday, they relayed stories that the Japanese prime minister has assured the nation that this situation will be handled by then, and the Games will go on.
They also said they don’t believe him.
After the Japanese women’s national team returns home, they have a few friendly matches scheduled in their home nation leading up to the Summer Games.
This uncertainty leaves hundreds of thousands of athletes all over the world preparing for the biggest competition of their lives knowing it may be pushed back. Maybe canceled.
“Even if they cancel or postpone the matches, there is nothing we can do about it,” Takakura said. “All we can say is we look forward to those friendly matches, and the Olympics as scheduled.”
The world has a new virus, and sports is now officially sick, too.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
