# NHL and NBA are probably toast **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 4, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016 "2020-04-04T00:55:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/1 "2020-04-04T00:55:46Z")
I can’t imagine the NHL or the NBA continuing at all this season. Could they begin earlier next season and do some sort of mini-playoff? What about baseball? I think some sort of season can be salvaged: 60ish games from July on? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/2 "2020-04-04T01:37:56Z")
I would think MLB could still do half a season. They hit the midway point in early July anyway, so just start around when the All Star game would be. Things will likely peak out before then and something is better than nothing. The NHL and NBA are pretty much doomed. It seems to me they’re better off just giving up, having everyone stay home, starting the next season in October. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/3 "2020-04-04T01:38:26Z")
I would think MLB could still do half a season. They hit the midway point in early July anyway, so just start around when the All Star game would be. Things will likely peak out before then and something is better than nothing. The NHL and NBA are pretty much doomed. It seems to me they’re better off just giving up, having everyone stay home, starting the next season in October. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/4 "2020-04-04T01:43:30Z")
There’s an echo in here. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/5 "2020-04-04T01:45:51Z")
> [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](#): > > There’s an echo in here. That was you. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/6 "2020-04-04T02:02:41Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > That was you. So, not a duck? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/7 "2020-04-04T02:36:09Z")
As a Spurs fan, it pleases me that our streak of consecutive playoff appearances since 1998 will remain intact 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/8 "2020-04-04T03:05:02Z")
They played ball during the spanish flu with masks on. > **[Sieger: History dictates that baseball will be back](https://www.thereporter.com/2020/03/28/sieger-history-dictates-that-baseball-will-be-back/)** > > We have been without Major League Baseball before now. The player strike of 1981 resulted in seven weeks and 713 games lost in the middle of the season. When play resumed on August 9, the season wa… I think it’s a great idea. Nothing would get people to start wearing masks as universally as watching baseball being played with masks on. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/9 "2020-04-04T03:08:54Z")
I suspect the NBA will end up with a shorter regular season and continue with the playoffs when they can. And if they can. The regular season doesn’t mean much. If they need closed stadiums to play, so be it. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/10 "2020-04-04T18:24:03Z")
For what it is worth an ESPN guy said the NBA is talking to the union about how to shutdown the season and how to handle the money when it’s shutdown. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/11 "2020-04-04T19:36:06Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I suspect the NBA will end up with a shorter regular season and continue with the playoffs when they can. And if they can. The regular season doesn’t mean much. If they need closed stadiums to play, so be it. The NBA playoffs were supposed to start in ten days. We might not be ten WEEKS from it being possible. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/12 "2020-04-05T00:49:00Z")
NHL playoffs would have started this week. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/13 "2020-04-05T17:53:04Z")
I predict that the idea of playing games in empty stadiums, which was briefly considered and then dropped in March, will be revived and will actually happen. Otherwise, sports fans will be in for a _very_ long wait. When we finally, gradually, emerge from lockdown, we’ll start small. Restaurants will reopen, table service only, no crowding around the bar. Movie theaters will be allowed to sell every other seat. Schools will reopen, then libraries. But sports arenas, with forty thousand or more sweaty, screaming, spraying fans crammed into a tiny space? That will happen last, and only after many, many months if not years. _But_, as testing becomes more widely available, it might be possible to safely get a couple of hundred pre-screened players and support staff into stadiums for games. And they will likely get great TV ratings, as people are starved for anything to watch. Still too late for the NHL and NBA, but it might be the only way for MLB to save even a half-season and for the NFL to play in 2020. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/14 "2020-04-05T19:27:49Z")
I heard something 2nd hand. All the NBA playoff teams would be housed in Las Vegas and all the games would be played in Vegas in an empty arena. For TV obviously ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/15 "2020-04-05T20:56:56Z")
Even without fans, someone could get sick at a game and then there is a lawsuit. Could be an arena worker , security guard , even a coach or player. Best way to avoid lawsuits is just shut it down. they can use a skeleton arena crew but they still will need some people. Las Vegas has 3 arenas so they might try to use all 3 - UNLV arena, T Mobile and one of the Casinos has an arena I think Orleans or MGM grand. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/16 "2020-04-05T21:31:24Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Even without fans, someone could get sick at a game and then there is a lawsuit. Could be an arena worker , security guard , even a coach or player. Best way to avoid lawsuits is just shut it down. they can use a skeleton arena crew but they still will need some people. > > … Test everyone. Test everyone anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/17 "2020-04-06T01:24:11Z")
The regular season is toast. But it doesn’t matter. Maybe a late and truncated playoff, time will tell. Too bad. Desperate sports channels have been showing Toronto’s playoff run. The Bucks, up an early 2-0 with Giannis looked formidable, and not much better this year than last. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/18 "2020-04-06T01:35:18Z")
I don’t follow the NBA, but the NHL season and playoffs are toast. The home of the Leafs at Scotiabank Place, as an example, accommodates more than 20,000 fans if you include standing room, and is almost always full except for some of the corporate seats in the lower bowl (paid for but not always occupied). This will be absolutely the LAST type of venue to re-open. Absent a miracle, that will not be soon enough even to have shortened playoffs based on season standings to date. Holding games in an empty stadium doesn’t make a lot of sense because you still need a lot of people in close proximity to each other – many dozens of support staff and technical and broadcasting staff besides the players themselves. So yep, toast it is, and for the same reason that talk shows are being done from the hosts’ homes if they’re being done at all rather than from empty studios: an abundance of caution, and as an important public-service example to the many morons who still won’t stay home. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2020, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/19 "2020-04-06T06:13:12Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Even without fans, someone could get sick at a game and then there is a lawsuit. Could be an arena worker , security guard , even a coach or player. Best way to avoid lawsuits is just shut it down. If we start suing every business that dares to reopen, even with government permission and after taking every reasonable precaution (no precaution will ever be 100.0% effective) to avoid spread of illness, we will have 30% unemployment for a long time. I mean, a _really_ long time. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016/20 "2020-04-07T20:10:21Z")
[NHL Commish: Completing regular season ‘may not be possible’](https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/29007779/nhl-commish-says-completing-regular-season-not-possible). Ahhh, welcome to reality Mr. Bettman. We’ve been expecting you. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nhl-and-nba-are-probably-toast/851016.md?page=2)