Sports Could Return This Year: Streaming Without Fans
As the major sports of summer are effectively cancelled and the world sits at home, quarantined from their fellow citizens, one wonders... will televised sports ever return? According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), it's entirely possible – with a key disclaimer. Speaking with Peter Hamby, host of Good Luck America, Dr. Fauci suggested that team sports, televised sports, and the like, could return without fans.
Sports could return this year, according to Dr. Fauci. "There's a way of doing that," said Dr. Fauci, "Nobody comes to the stadium. Put them in big hotels, wherever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled ... and have them tested like every week and make sure they don't wind up infecting each other or their family and just let them play the season out."
Above you'll see the video as posted by SNAP Originals. There you'll see the interview where Dr. Fauci speaks about the return of sports to TV. Until a time at which this can become a reality, we've got esports! And traditional athletes playing video games aplenty!
Earlier this month, ESPN outlined an esports marathon including such games as Apex Legends, Rocket League, and Madden NFL. So it's like traditional sports stars playing video games of the games they'd usually play with their entire body. Much safer this way, right?
In an ESPN interview this week, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins suggested he'd be OK with playing without spectators in-person.
"Honestly, we practice every day in an empty grass area and pump in fake crowd noise for away games, but more often than not, you're used to it. OTA practices don't have a lot of pomp and circumstance to them," said Cousins. "So honestly, to go out and just play the game would kind of be refreshing, a breath of fresh air, to just let us know that we don't have to have all the smoke and the fire. We can just play football.
"So as long as we're playing the game, I won't have a lot of complaints, and hopefully if it's still not returned to normal, we can find a way to make it work."
Per Dr. Fauci, "people say, 'well you can't play without spectators... Well, I think you'll probably get enough buy in from people who are dying to see a baseball game. Particularly me. I'm living in Washington: We have the world champion in the Washington Nationals. I want to see them play again."