The American people are used to a never-ending cycle of sports leagues and games — from baseball throughout the summer, to the winter months chock-full of football, hockey and basketball that last into the spring. But starting in the middle of March, that cycle was broken. Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert’s positive test for COVID-19 set off a chain reaction with all other professional leagues postponing play. The pandemic stole months of sports as the population began social distancing and isolating.
As leagues thought up plans to return to play, one question became more and more important: do they try to play in a bubble, or not? Do they commit to coming together and finishing the season in a closed environment where no one gets in or out, or look to recreate a somewhat normal season with teams in their own stadiums? While leagues like the NBA and NHL that were near the end of their seasons chose the bubble format, the ones that had full seasons to play went a different route. The paths that each league took had significant implications, with not only ticket revenue and financial loss at stake, but also the health of players, staff, and fans. Nine months on from the first shutdowns in the United States, those decisions were a huge factor in the amount of COVID outbreaks and the overall success of their return formats.
After initial plans to play a regular season collapsed after multiple players tested positive during Spring Training, the MLB decided to go ahead with their season in July without the bubble format, the only league to take its show on the road. Players were tested every other day for the virus and had their temperature checked twice a day, all non-playing personnel wore face coverings at all times in the dugout and bullpen and if a player had close contact with anyone showing symptoms, they were given expedited tests. If they tested positive, they were quarantined, and were unable to return until testing negative twice, 24 hours apart, with no fever for at least 72 hours. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred justified the reason for not having a bubble as the MLB having much larger numbers of players than other major league sports; the MLB would have needed multiple locations for their bubble, the number of people needed to support the players would be much larger and the duration would have been longer.
With teams such as the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals having major outbreaks this season, we were shown that non-bubbles can burst too; safety measures for sports games during the pandemic that did not utilize bubble formats failed to be successful. Officials are planning to create bubble plans for the post series world season which will hopefully serve to be as successful as the leagues utilizing the bubble format right now.
The NBA created a bubble at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for 22 of the 30 teams. They chose 13 in the Western Conference and nine in the Eastern based on standings before the season was cut short by the pandemic early in March. Players arrived July 7 and were placed in quarantine for 48 hours until they received two negative tests, with games starting July 31. Two players tested positive after arriving at the bubble and were sent home. Players were tested regularly after entering the bubble, but there was little chance of new cases randomly appearing since everyone there had already quarantined and tested negative. There were no additional positive cases during the entire schedule.
The WNBA created a bubble at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Players arrived on July 6, 18 days before the first game with all 12 teams in attendance. The WNBA had 7 players test positive after entering the bubble and sent those athletes home. The league saw no other positive tests after that. Not all bubbles are created equal, though. While the NBA saw fine dining, grooming and approved fun, the WNBA players experienced unappetizing meals, bugs in rooms and rodent traps.
The NFL decided not to mandate team bubbles. Although Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University, advised the league to create 32 individual team bubbles, the league has opted not to take that approach. According to Binney as quoted in ESPN, “you have to make a big upfront investment to make sure that there is a low chance that anyone who gets on the field is infected.” The NFL thought bubbles would be too logistically difficult and would hinder proper operation of the team and the league’s business. Some team officials have objected in exasperation to the idea of a curtailed or bubble-ridden NFL season. Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh said he is “not one personally to run scared from a virus or anything else," adding that although he will "respect the protocols… I'm not going to run for cover and I don't think the NFL is either." Jack Del Rio, the defensive coordinator for the Washington Redskins, tweeted that "I think most players understand the risk of playing the game of football. The priority is not trying to be perfectly safe. ... If so, perhaps you should never drive your car."
However, the NFL is not ignorant of the seriousness of the situation. Although they rejected the idea of bubbles, they did institute protocols for the teams which include all players and coaches having a negative test from the previous day's testing before entering the facility, unauthorized personnel not being allowed on side-lines, players having individual hotel rooms and players not being allowed into team facilities the day after traveling. One of the key protocols included players who were on the sidelines, not preparing to play, had to wear masks. Unfortunately, these protocols have been violated, repeatedly. For example, recent violations included Patriots and Saints players facing fines for breaking mask policies. This resulted in many outbreaks which luckily did not turn into league-wide events; the containment was made possible by post-infection adherence to league rules about contact. To deal with teams needing to sideline players unexpectedly, the league created “COVID lists” where a team could have more players on their roster than would usually be allowed.
Postseason football is one of the most attractive sports events of the year for the American public. Officials are actively discussing creating local bubbles for the teams that make it to the playoffs; participating teams will have their players, coaches and staffers stay in local hotels as opposed to going home each day. It will be logistically simpler to create bubbles for 16 teams than all 32 teams, and these bubbles will need to be sustained for shorter periods. The idea of a bubble for the postseason has not been finalised yet but it is being reviewed on a day-to-day basis.
The NHL, with the Stanley Cup Playoffs already looming before the season was cancelled, chose a bubble format similar to the NBA. Without a complex with multiple courts like the Disney location, the NHL chose to separate into two bubbles in order to maximize the number of games that could be played. The Western Conference went to Edmonton, and the Eastern played in Toronto. Each location had rinks to play on (Edmonton’s Rogers Place and Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena), as well as hotels for the players to stay at and outdoor leisure facilities, such as golf courses, open to the players and staff.
Twelve teams entered each bubble on July 26, with the top four teams in each conference (based on standings when the season was postponed in March) set to play a round-robin to determine seeding for the playoffs. The remaining eight teams in each conference played a best-of-five play-in series to determine the four remaining postseason slots. Games began on August 1. With COVID testing done regularly and mask protocol and social distancing orders in place, the NHL had no positive tests during either bubble, and saw the postseason through to its end, with the Tampa Bay Lightning hoisting the Stanley Cup.
The pandemic has certainly changed sports and the way fans experience it. There is alot about the post-pandemic world that will never be the same again and one of the biggest changes will be health and safety protocols that need to be taken for fans at live games. “In terms of watching a live sports game, I think that there will be fixed seating and stadiums will operate at half capacity, this is being very optimistic, but could happen in the long run. For now, we will just have to continue watching from our devices at home.” says sports fan Ashwin Mahtani. Many fans' desire to watch sports during this time has decreased. “The atmosphere in the stadiums is gone due to the restrictions for covid. Overall, the experience is much poorer than before. It is almost surreal and I don't enjoy it as much” says sports fan Maaz Milfer. Sports fan Steve Dalton has a similar outlook on the situation and states “I used to feel like I had something in common with the people in the stands like I could ride their energy, and we had something in common. Now the stands are almost always empty, no cheering or anything. It sucks.”
The sports experience has changed not only for fans but for reporters too. Ex production assistant at NBC Sports Boston, Calli Remillard, shared her change in desire to report on sports during these unprecedented times, “ Hopefully, the future of sports will eventually be something similar to the way it was before the pandemic. I’m sure I speak for millions of sports fans, reporters and players when I say that I miss the rush of being at a game, the thrill of being in a crowd experiencing something amazing together. I'm not sure what sports will look like in the coming years, but in my heart, I truly hope things will one way return to some kind of semblance of normal.”
Overall, the leagues that chose to use bubble formats ended up having greater control over the spread of the virus. In the NBA, WNBA and NHL, there were no cases after the first round of testing when players arrived at the bubble. Because those players were sent home, it meant that all who were in the bubble were COVID negative, allowing play to resume. The MLB and NHL saw outbreaks appear in clusters across the league on multiple occasions without a bubble. This caused some postponements and rescheduled games, which the leagues adjusted for admirably. But the point stands that entering a bubble and committing to that format is the best approach for leagues trying to return to play.
