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NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships
- matwood 7y agoThis was basically a done deal this morning once the conferences canceled all of their ongoing tournaments, and schools like Duke stopped all sports.
- VWWHFSfQ 7y agoWhen Duke and Kansas said they were dropping out of the tournament it was over. I bet the NCAA was still trying to figure out if they could still play without fans in attendance. But once the Blue Bloods left, they knew it was done.
- danso 7y agoDevastating news. It’s sad enough that the NBA season was stopped, but the NCAA tourney is often the high-water mark and finale for most of its players’ careers. But it’s a wise decision nonetheless; I’m surprised it was decided before a player or coach was diagnosed with covid19
- RocketSyntax 7y agoSo soft. Teams should just play. Anyone that isn't sick can play. It's a 5v5 game. Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled.
- egdod 7y agoExcept that people become contagious before they have symptoms, and we don’t really have a good testing regimen.
- CydeWeys 7y agoWe don't even know who's sick and who isn't because we don't have enough test kits.
- techntoke 7y agoBut the President said that anyone that wants a test can have one, and that it is our fault for not getting tested.
- ta999999171 7y agoCitation Needed.
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- bosie 7y agohttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-messaging.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/us/politics/trump-coronav... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_XwC9IQKBc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_XwC9IQKBc
- ta999999171 7y agoThank you!
- techntoke 7y agoNever seen someone get downvoted for posting proof before
- sdinsn 7y agoNot true.
- danso 7y agoThe concern is not exclusively about the players' own health. Most of these players interact with other human beings.
- ascagnel_ 7y agoThe real risk isn't with the players -- the real risk is that if you have someone (spectator, foodservice worker, officail, etc.) who's been infected, but hasn't yet shown any symptoms, they're interacting with a ton of other people in a short span in an uncontrolled way. It's a huge potential driver for community spread.
- BOBOTWINSTON 7y agoSo socially responsible. This hurts a lot for some of us. I am a Creighton fan and this was our first big year in a long time, maybe our best of all time. Sports fans get accused of forgetting "it is all a game" sometimes. It is certainly more than a game when you think of how much some people's lives depend on the money from these events, but limiting the impact of this virus is certainly not "soft".
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- RocketSyntax 7y agoIt's not a game to those players. It's their life. If they don't want to get the flu it should be their choice not to play.
- jgwil2 7y agoI really don't think I should be having to make this comment, but it's not the flu. You know it's not the flu, we all know it's not the flu. Please stop trolling.
- gdulli 7y agoThe decision is not about the players, it's much bigger than that. It was also the players' choice to make their life about something that was always going to lose in priority to public health, if it ever came to that.
- zwily 7y agoSame with me and BYU. We had potential for the best tournament run since Jimmer Fredette, and we’ll likely end the year #1 in men’s volleyball with no championship to play for. (Our last title win was in 2003.) Will teams that finish #1 in various polls claim national titles? Of course none of it matters that much in the long run but it is a big bummer for the athletes and fans!
- gnulinux 7y agoGreat majority of cases are asymptomatic, great majority of symptomatic cases are very mild possibly indistinguishable from common cold so people may be inclined to ignore it. So, it's not safe to have any gatherings of this scale since inevitably many people will be infected.
- tunesmith 7y agoIs it actually true that the great majority are asymptomatic? I know the great majority of cases (currently, in the US) are untested, but they might very well be symptomatic. Also, is it true that the great majority are as mild as the common cold? I ask just because I heard "mild" encompasses "feels like death but doesn't need hospitalization", like the kind of cold I've had perhaps twice in my life. (Asking from the point of view of being all-in-favor of canceling large gatherings, to protect the folks that would be hit hard by the illness.)
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- thawaway1837 7y agoThe kids playing are the least at risk. It’s their fellow passengers, people they meet and who serve their food, clean their hotel rooms, fans, etc who are at risk.
- slantyyz 7y ago> Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled. That was already announced before the NCAA cancellation. [1] https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/28891268/atp-suspends-men-tennis-tournaments-six-weeks https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/28891268/atp-suspends...
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- mfer 7y agoThis is going to have a cascading economic impact. There are the channels that cover the tournament (e.g., ESPN), the tournament bracket sites that get ad revenue, the local businesses around the stadiums that host the games, and so much more.
- elhudy 7y agoI'd like to know the impact on Vegas
- rurp 7y agoSports betting revenue makes up a surprisingly small percent of Vegas gaming revenue, something like %1.5 last I looked. However, I expect the general trend of people avoiding traveling and crowded places will have a massive effect on Vegas revenue as a whole.
- joezydeco 7y agoIllinois just approved sports books and casinos were rushing to open their betting windows before the tournament. Oops.
- outoftouchtech 7y agoThis isn't meant to be directed at you, but it's hilarious to me what people are focusing on, or what supposedly triggers concern. And just what economic bubbles folks are in, with such little perspective for those around them that share common infrastructure that is going to be stressed in the coming weeks and months. Look. I have multiple friends who have already had all of their shifts canceled for the rest of March. And guess what, nothing is going to be better April 1st. Those folks don't have investment funds to sell. They don't have 401Ks to skim from early, at great cost. They don't have friends and family with money and their emergency fund wouldn't even cover the costs of HALF of a Coronavirus test, let alone a weeks worth of rent. We need to be talking about suspending evictions, delaying mortgage payments, nationalizing health care, and more. And if you think this is over the top, go watch and read about Italy and get back to me in 2.5 weeks. I can't wait for the rest of America to understand just what a precarious and fragile system we've built.
- dpeck 7y agoThis should result in an immediate extra year of scholarship eligibility for any of the kids effected.
- xwdv 7y agoWhy? These things happen, it’s life.
- cmbell715 7y agoExcept the NCAA tournament has been around since 1939 and never been canceled. Neither has the NIT, which started in 1938 and was considered the preeminent tournament until the 50’s. So really, what’s decided regarding eligibility will set the precedent going forward. Hopefully it won’t ever have to be referenced though.
- paxys 7y agoIt doesn't affect student athletes all that much. There will still be a draft, as always.
- gz5 7y agohate it for the folks and families directly impacted but it is the safe decision. it does make you think about how much of this is temporary and how much results in sustained, macro level changes. let's say many countries, companies and individuals "get used" to how we will need to live over the next weeks/months. what things that we used to take as "norms" may change, permanently, and what would the second and third order effects be? for example, let's say travel-centric entertainment (sports, concerts etc) became more of an online experience than it already is, and WFH becomes more prevalent. now many folks with "discretionary income and time" theoretically have "extra" time and/or money. where would it go? would we invest some of it into people and companies that are seeking to improve things for the people that don't have discretionary income/time? would we invest some of it in healthcare, biotech, etc. designed to try to prevent future similar events? or would a variant of parkinson's law just swallow it?
- tekstar 7y agoAlso.. what freedoms are now at risk in an attempt to prevent the next pandemic?
- _dark_matter_ 7y agoThere are a _lot_ of things we can do to prevent and prepare for the next pandemic that have nothing to do with curtailing freedoms. Let's focus on those.
- ta999999171 7y agoALL of them. Tragedies are never wasted.
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- ohyeshedid 7y agoMLS suspended it's season for 30 days. MLB opening day postponed for at least two weeks. NHL suspended it's season. Nascar is likely next.
- brianTheDog 7y agoI can see them not having fans at the races, but Nascar drivers and pit crews seem like they are at a lot less risk compared to basketball players. I would actually think this would be a great time for Nascar to capitalize on other sports being suspended.
- ohyeshedid 7y agoThey've already announced there will be no fans at the next two scheduled races. There are still hundreds to thousands of people that work directly for Nascar and all the racing teams, and they haven't mentioned anything about cutting those numbers down as far as I've seen.
- curiouscats 7y agoAnd a psychological impact. It would have been a very welcome distraction for me. I realize there are many people who won't notice it is missing but quite a few people would have had a nice way to distract themselves while socially isolating themselves at home. It is a shame we waited so long to take action to prevent the spread of covid19 in the USA that this became necessary given the risks we face.
- lessoutoftouch 7y agoI agree, it’s one of the things about pandemics I hadn’t realized, at all. Other disasters and emergency situations still have their bread and circuses, and I miss it.
- odessacubbage 7y agotime to take the waifu-pill.
- mmazing 7y agoI hope actions like this can start to make people wake up that this is in fact serious and should be taken seriously. Still too many people calling it a hoax and that it's no worse than a common cold.
- colechristensen 7y agoHow bad does it have to be to fit in the "serious" vs. "not serious" bucket? It's like a rather bad influenza. The mortality rate is fairly low and difficult to estimate unless you test the entire population on a regular basis. It isn't like one of the outbreaks that kills 10%, 20%, 50% of the infected. It shouldn't be ignored, but it also shouldn't be treated like a new black death. It is difficult for uninformed people to say "people are overreacting to a real threat".
- sonofaplum 7y agoit kills a low percentage but it infects a high percentage. So total deaths + seriously ill MAY be equal to a more lethal disease that is less infectious.
- lisper 7y ago> It isn't like one of the outbreaks that kills 10%, 20%, 50% of the infected. That's true, but it has one characteristic that makes it very nasty: it is highly contagious before you show any symptoms. That makes it very hard to contain. So we only have two options: either try to contain it despite the difficulty, or just give up, let it spread, and essentially sacrifice 1% of the world's population. 1% is better than 10% of course, but that's still 70 million people.
- ska 7y agoIt's not the fatality rate you need to look at but the R0 and transmission mechanisms. The bad-case version of this isn't people dying in the streets of the virus, it's people dying needlessly (some in the streets) of preventable things because the healthcare system is completely log jammed and there are literally no more beds and no more staff available. This basically what Italy is staring at, currently. "It's like a rather bad influenza." This is quite likely dangerously obtuse; we won't know for sure for a while.
- luhn 7y agoI've felt a huge shift in public opinion in the US this week. People are finally taking this seriously. With the federal government's inept response, it's a ray of hope to see private institutions take such large measures to keep a lid on this.
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- brianTheDog 7y agoWhen you say players do you mean stu-dent ath-oo-lets or slaves?
- bluedevil2k 7y agoComments like this should earn a banishment
- stevieCards 7y agoUmm... so you like the exploitation of young people? Universities make millions while “student athletes” get paid peanuts, and you don’t like someone pointing it out? Why?
- elwell 7y agoInteresting camelCase, green user.
- stevieCards 7y agoHow is it interesting? Also, why are you focused on my username rather than the point made in the comment?
- lessoutoftouch 7y agoIs there something wrong with your brain? Why are you acting this way? Take a good look at yourself and ponder if this is the best version of yourself you are capable of.
- MockObject 7y agoHow about we start by reserving the word "exploitation" for situations people cannot easily get up and walk away from? And not situations that people dream of, and struggle very hard to achieve?
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- AnimalMuppet 7y agoBut... but... now I don't have anything to watch while I'm quarantined! Seriously, it's a bit of a bummer. I had hopes that this year a non-power-conference team (Gonzaga, San Diego State, Dayton) could win it all. I know there are bigger issues to worry about, but it's still a disappointment.
- jlizzle30 7y agoESports seem well positioned to take some of this mindshare.
- dmitrygr 7y agogood. this country spends too much of people's money and attention on this nonsense. maybe we can make this permanent. it is insane that one can get into a college with zero brain power just for being tall (and ncaa and co enable that). what possible use does society have for that long term?
- eden_hazard 7y agoThat's a bad way of looking at it. First of all, sports are entertaining. There's a reason why people like it. Second, no one gets there without hard work. For every kid that makes it to college basketball, there are probably hundreds of others that didn't make it even high school basketball from the under 10s.
- oxymoran 7y agoEntertainment... What use does society have for Facebook and Twitter long term? Those are far more detrimental to society than college basketball.
- dmitrygr 7y agocouldn't agree more
- sdinsn 7y ago> this country spends too much of people's money and attention on this nonsense Are you also against TV, movies, video games, reading fiction, etc.? God forbid people spend their money on entertainment. I'm not even a basketball fan, but I can recognize that your comment is absolutely ridiculous. > can get into a college with zero brain power just for being tall Basketball is a lot more than "being tall"...
- beat 7y agoOther sports, too. My favorite, Formula 1 racing, is in trouble. The MacLaren team withdrew from sunday's first-in-season Australian GP after a team member tested positive for coronavirus, and there are unconfirmed rumors that the whole race will be canceled. (F1.com isn't saying that yet, but one of the top drivers, Sebastian Vettel, said in a news conference that drivers would "pull the handbrake" on the race if they didn't feel safe.) The upcoming Chinese GP is being rescheduled, and the first-ever Vietnam GP might also fall victim. Bahrain GP is scheduled for Mar 22, so if Australia gets canceled, Bahrain probably will too. This is a huge and extremely expensive sport, one of the most popular and lucrative in the world, with teams shipping dozens of personnel and many tons of equipment all over the world. The logistics are a nightmare if it gets changed.
- SkyMarshal 7y agoWhy not instead cancel the live audience, but keep the tournament? Play the games in empty stadiums, but televise them. And test the players before each game starts. Everything is going virtual now anyway, sports might as well too. That also maintains at least some of the ad revenue and other economic activity while still greatly minimizing risk of spreading the outbreak.
- TuringNYC 7y ago>> And test the players before each game starts. There are apparently no synchronous tests (e.g. antibody tests) in the US currently. Asynchronous tests (PCR) are hard to come by, and take 3 hours to run with a 2-3 day lead time at best.