Basketball season starts amid surging COVID-19 cases

A handful of international basketball leagues started the 2020/2021 season this past weekend, and the bulk will follow within the next two weeks. While the NBA is still in the process of wrapping up the past season (2019/2020), the Polish league kicked off the new season as early as the 29th of August. The Mexican and Czech leagues soon followed.

Nobody outside of the NBA has the capacity or will to play in a bubble, so there are significant safety concerns. Countries have various rules regarding social distancing and professional sports. Some allow spectators, while some don’t or only a limited number.

Several leagues have also decided to play a shorter season or alter their format. For example, the Italian Serie A is now divided into groups to limit travel.

All this happens against the background of a COVID-10 “second wave.” The number of virus cases is surging everywhere, and Israel was recently the first country to have a second lock-down.

The expectation is that things will worsen before they get better. That means that this will be a basketball season like no other. What are the contingency plans if there is a second lock-down or another cancelation of the season? How would leagues and teams survive that? Games without spectators are already a big blow to team budgets. On top of that sponsors are pulling back or drastically lowering their amounts.

Even if there were a vaccine right now, it would take many months (or even years) before offering enough protection to go back to life as usual.

Professional sports can’t survive a situation in which COVID-19 continues to disrupt daily life for years to come. There needs to be a back-up plan in case COVID-19 is here to stay.