NEW YORK, NY–It sounds “Goofy” (pun intended), but Steven Goff of the Washington Post is reporting that Major League Soccer is planning a restart to the season with all 26 teams playing games at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando. Of course, it should be noted that Disney is the parent company of ESPN.
All players, coaches and support staff—which would be more than 1,000 people—would be quarantined in hotels at the complex, where they’d be tested regularly for COVID-19.
Goff reports that ESPN would broadcast multiple games a day. It’s unclear whether the league’s other broadcast partners, Fox Sports and Univision, would be a part of this plan.
Some MLS teams have re-opened practice facilities for individual workouts. At the time of this reporting, 15 of the league’s 26 teams have done just that while others like Chicago Fire FC have not done so due to their state’s current stay-at-home orders.
MLS, the MLS Players Association, and Disney have not commented on the story. MLS has hoped to resume play on June 8th. Each team had played two games before the league suspended play in mid-March due to the coronavirus.
THOUGHTS: Much like baseball’s shelved plan to have its games played in Arizona, it is understatement to say it would be a big ask for players to leave their families for months to play in isolation in Orlando. The league and MLSPA are also discussing wage cuts.
As I said in my Bundesliga piece on Prost International, most leagues will primarily make decisions on resumption will primarily be driven by economics than safety. Putting over one thousand people in isolation in Walt Disney World could create a “biosphere”, but as we have seen with the White House, the virus can strike anywhere.
Any league the resumes naturally will risk a spike in infections and falling back to square one. Again, we at Prost do hope that every precaution will be made to ensure the safety of players and staff for each of the teams as each league resumes. Absent an effective vaccine or treatment, a huge ramping up in testing, contact tracing, and social distancing and hygiene measures will be the best preventative measures in slowing down the spread of the virus.
In other news, Costa Rica is planning to resume is Clasura on May 20th behind closed doors and play Sunday-Wednesday to finish the season and have its final on July 1st if all goes well. League play in Costa Rica was suspended on March 17th with seven of the 22 rounds played. Saprissa currently leads Alajuelense by four points.
At the time of this reporting, Costa Rica just have 804 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with seven deaths (fewest in the Americas) and 520 reported recoveries.
MLS East
