The coronavirus pandemic brought the sports world to a sudden stop just a few weeks ago, but Major League Baseball reportedly has high hopes to get its season going in the near future.
According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, MLB is working on a plan that could bring baseball back as soon as May. The plan would bring all 30 MLB teams to the greater Phoenix area, playing at the Diamondbacks stadium and surrounding spring training facilities with no fans in attendance.
According to Passan, the idea has support from MLB and MLB Players Association leadership, as well as "the backing of federal officials."
Passan details some of the obvious issues with the plan, noting that the most important factor would be "a significant increase in available coronavirus tests with a quick turnaround time."
—Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 7, 2020
The plan would also be asking a lot of players, who might need to remain isolated from their families for as long as four months in order to get the season started. On Twitter, some fans called out the plan as farfetched.
—Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) April 7, 2020
—GspotMMA 🇭🇹 (@GspotMMA) April 7, 2020
Such a move would also come with huge financial ramifications for the league, as teams would be conceding ticket sales for any games played without fans in attendance, though Passan says that MLB could mitigate some of those losses by expanding its national television schedule, as networks would likely be eager to add live programming to their lineups.
The league's move to Arizona could also potentially come with a number of other changes that would help to bring back baseball while maintaining social distancing guidelines, including electronic strike zones that would allow umpires to remain further back from the plate and a restriction on mound visits from catchers and pitching coaches, among others.
MLB is not the first major sports league to float the idea attempting to start back up under isolation — similar proposals have been tossed around with regard to the NBA, NFL, and Premier League.
Given the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, beginning play in May feels like an ambitious timeline, even for a league without fans — Passan writes that some officials believe that a June opening day would be more realistic.
Either way, it sounds like MLB has every option on the table to save its season.
