Society is crumbling around us but my god is it amazing to have my circuses back. I feel bad for being so happy to watch sports again...
Depends which sports. European football seems to have come back without too many hiccups. F1 came back and while a driver tested positive, that seems to be the only hit so far.
American sports seem to have completely failed tho, especially baseball. IDK what happened there, whole teams being taken ill
Hyperindividualism is what eats the west from inside, especially the US(not to neglect the other issues of course).
Additionally, "freedom" being defined exclusively by consumer choices. Tell people they can't go to the mall and they've lost the only freedom they ever had.
Baseball also is never going to work because they're trying to hold a full regular season while the NBA and NHL are just starting the playoffs. For the NHL, only 2/3 of the league went to the bubble cities, and half those teams will leave this/next week having played 5 games or fewer. Baseball is going to try to have all 31 teams play 60 games each.
I have mixed feelings.
I was genuinely excited that Bundesliga came back and did so safely. Germany was able to handle that additional testing and resource strain, and if players were inured they would not take up much needed hospital space.
I was cautiously optimistic for NWSL. They bubbled in Utah, a state that was able to locate additional testing without negatively impacting their populace. It was a great tournament.
When MLS and NBA announced a Florida bubble I initially assumed it was doomed to fail before it started. But as it became clear that MLS is Back was going to start no matter what, I became concerned for player safety.
I was somewhat proven right (two teams with double-digit cases from traveling), and somewhat proven wrong (no cases since then). But the resource strain from both of these tournaments has had a real, tangible, negative impact. People in Florida are waiting longer and longer for test results, and fewer daily tests are available.
That's not really the fault of the leagues, though. It's primarily a fault of DeSantis and his sociopathic governance of Florida. But it also shouldn't have been hard to see this coming.
Leagues like USL and MLB trying to do this without a bubble are crazy, and we're seeing the results line up exactly as expected. USL has fans in the stands for fucks sake, what are you thinking?
Anyway, this is a long post to say that I was mostly excited at first for soccer in other countries, somewhat excited despite circumstances for NWSL and MLS, and enraged by other leagues.
I was somewhat process right (two teams with double-digit cases from traveling), and somewhat proven wrong (no cases since then). But the resource strain from both of these tournaments has had a real, tangible, negative impact. People in Florida are waiting longer and longer for test results, and fewer daily tests are available.
How is this allowed? Putting the entire population at risk for some entertainment.
At least in Germany they said you can only restart when the testing capacities necessary for the sport won't impaire the testing for general population.How the US hasn't completely collapsed is a bit of a mystery to me(not really, but you get the point).
How is this allowed?
Florida is largely pretending this isn't happening. It's pretty disgusting.
And, honestly, I can't really blame the league, as the government supposedly promised them that they would be able to handle the influx. The state's refusal to shut things back down amid massive spikes is the real reason the systems are overwhelmed. It's just that the leagues aren't really helping...
I'm pretty much a combat sports only kinda guy, so my sports never really stopped lol. Dana White's such a dumb motherfucker, but I've enjoyed all these no crowd fight cards. Reminds me of the Pride days and how deathly quiet the crowds could be.
I think this is a natural feeling to have while being aware of the absolutely pandering military worship peddled during most sports broadcasts. Not to mention other aspects that require deep investigation.
All of that being said, there is a long history of sports and resistance. Dave Zirin talks about this in his book what’s my name fool. I love sports and have been able to find ways to enjoy it through a perspective focusing on labor history, protest, resistance and more.
Not to mention if you do this to everything, you'll go insane. Sports are human life in microcosm. We fix the world and the problems in sports will disappear.
it's extemely dumb to have sports back. the nba, in orlando, while florida is one of the world's epicenters of covid infection rates. it's a gross misallocation of resources when it's probably difficult to even get a test if you're a regular person there. and they are testing everyone, often in the nba bubble. as opposed to baseball, that's just a train wreck already.
but hey. while we have it, im here for it lol
my local soccer team just had fans back in the stadium....absolutely absurd decision
We must have football. What would this country be without football in October?
About ~8 years ago or so I started really consolidating my sports viewing. Used to be MLB, NBA, NFL, College Football, NHL, Premier League - like anything I could get my hands on.
Then circumstances like going back to school (at the age of 26), working as a bartender during peak hours/times. It's now where College Football & sOcCeR are all that I watch. The hardest thing for me is that I have a college football podcast, and just worked my ass off for two months with my co-hosts putting together conference previews all the while knowing we probably aren't having a season. So I still feel like I'm in this purgatory in-between space with the sport I love the most.
I'm enjoying it because it's here and there's nothing I can say or do that prevents that, so why not enjoy it.
But I think it's a stupid, insane idea with the way the country is at the moment, and people are definitely going to get sick in big numbers, and some will probably die.
