March Sadness

Coronavirus has now taken away just about everything, including our beloved sports.

Flynn McGurrin and Dane McDermot|March 25, 2020

March Sadness

With the Coronavirus spreading rapidly in the United States and around the world, professional sports have postponed their seasons until further notice, and the sports world has come to a standstill because of it. 

Two weeks ago, the NCAA cancelled its men’s and women’s March Madness basketball tournaments. Fans quickly created the phrase March Sadness and are rightfully upset about the situation. Fans took to Twitter and Instagram to chastise the NCAA, calling the decision an overreaction and said the situation is blown out of proportion. The NCAA also cancelled the regular season and playoffs for sports like lacrosse, golf, hockey, and baseball. 

This came as a surprise to many college sports fans around the country because the NCAA has been known to prioritize revenue over their athletes. Cancelling the remaining sporting events for the year is going to cost the NCAA billions of dollars in revenue with the Men’s basketball tournament bringing in $933 million alone.

Winter sport athletes have been hit hardest by the cancellations. These athletes are not being awarded another year of eligibility which means some seniors may never play their sport again. Thankfully, spring sport athletes are being awarded another year of eligibility.

The NBA has also been heavily affected by the virus. NBA stars Rudy Gobert, Kevin Durant, Donovan Mitchell, Christian Wood, Marcus Smart, and multiple other players have tested positive for COVID-19. 

The NBA season is currently suspended indefinitely. Commissioner Adam Silver originally marked April as a return date but has pushed the date back to as early as June.

Without NBA games being played, hourly stadium workers will go without work for what could be months. Players like Kevin Love and Blake Griffin are donating thousands of dollars to their teams to help pay hourly workers, and rookie star, Zion Williamson, is paying all hourly workers for the Pelicans organization in full.

The NHL has also felt the impacts of Coronavirus. On the afternoon of Thursday March 12, the NHL’s commissioner, Gary Bettman, announced that the entire league would be put on pause for an indefinite amount of time. This means that all games are postponed until further notice. However, Bettman is hoping for a quick resume to be able to finish out the 2019-2020 season. While it seemed as though it was inevitable, fans were holding out for the NHL to play on after the postponement of so many other leagues.

Furthermore, the XFL was suspended on March 12 just five weeks into its inaugural season. This comes as just another league that has suspended play due to the CoronaVirus, which is highly unfortunate considering this league was just starting to establish itself. Luckily, the commissioner, Oliver Luck, stated that the XFL would be back in full swing in 2021. Also, he said all players would be allowed to sign with the NFL and not be held to their contracts.

On top of all this, another huge announcement was made on March 12 when Major League Baseball suspended all operations including all spring training games, and they postponed the start of the MLB regular season. As of now, the regular season start is going to be delayed for at least two months. This comes as real disappointment to fans looking forward to another great summer of baseball.

A few other sports had major events cancelled as well, including golf, soccer, and tennis. Both the PGA Tour season and the Masters tournament have been suspended in the golf world. All ATP Tour tennis events have also been cancelled, and the International Tennis Federation has suspended all ITF owned and sanctioned events. Among many other soccer leagues across the world, the MLS and the English Premier League have suspended their seasons for the time being. 

All of these sports leagues suspensions are really starting to stack up and take a toll on fans, players, staff, and the entire world. We can only hope the Coronavirus settles down soon so we can get back to watching all the sports we love.