NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships

[mfer]

This is going to have a cascading economic impact. There are the channels that cover the tournament (e.g., ESPN), the tournament bracket sites that get ad revenue, the local businesses around the stadiums that host the games, and so much more.

[LeifCarrotson]

But interestingly, it won't affect the players' immediate economic futures, as they're all prohibited from being paid by the NCAA.

[outoftouchtech]

This isn't meant to be directed at you, but it's hilarious to me what people are focusing on, or what supposedly triggers concern. And just what economic bubbles folks are in, with such little perspective for those around them that share common infrastructure that is going to be stressed in the coming weeks and months.

Look. I have multiple friends who have already had all of their shifts canceled for the rest of March. And guess what, nothing is going to be better April 1st. Those folks don't have investment funds to sell. They don't have 401Ks to skim from early, at great cost. They don't have friends and family with money and their emergency fund wouldn't even cover the costs of HALF of a Coronavirus test, let alone a weeks worth of rent.

We need to be talking about suspending evictions, delaying mortgage payments, nationalizing health care, and more. And if you think this is over the top, go watch and read about Italy and get back to me in 2.5 weeks. I can't wait for the rest of America to understand just what a precarious and fragile system we've built.

[capkutay]

Just looking at sports trickle-down economic impact in a vacuum, imagine all the other industries that will have similar consequences. Ones that aren't even visible to the average person but highly impactful on our daily lives.

We're going to have to take special measures to make sure critical supply chains stay in tact.

[joezydeco]

Illinois just approved sports books and casinos were rushing to open their betting windows before the tournament. Oops.

[elhudy]

I'd like to know the impact on Vegas

[danso]

Devastating news. It’s sad enough that the NBA season was stopped, but the NCAA tourney is often the high-water mark and finale for most of its players’ careers. But it’s a wise decision nonetheless; I’m surprised it was decided before a player or coach was diagnosed with covid19

[curiouscats]

And a psychological impact. It would have been a very welcome distraction for me. I realize there are many people who won't notice it is missing but quite a few people would have had a nice way to distract themselves while socially isolating themselves at home. It is a shame we waited so long to take action to prevent the spread of covid19 in the USA that this became necessary given the risks we face.

[lessoutoftouch]

I agree, it’s one of the things about pandemics I hadn’t realized, at all. Other disasters and emergency situations still have their bread and circuses, and I miss it.

[odessacubbage]

time to take the waifu-pill.

[luhn]

I've felt a huge shift in public opinion in the US this week. People are finally taking this seriously. With the federal government's inept response, it's a ray of hope to see private institutions take such large measures to keep a lid on this.

[mmazing]

I hope actions like this can start to make people wake up that this is in fact serious and should be taken seriously.

Still too many people calling it a hoax and that it's no worse than a common cold.

[ookblah]

unfortunately, this has caused some in the circle i know (mid-sized midwest city) to double down on stupid. that this is evidence of the hysteria and (not to get too political) some type of ploy to destabilize the economy and election. lol. what fun times we live in...

[colechristensen]

How bad does it have to be to fit in the "serious" vs. "not serious" bucket?

It's like a rather bad influenza. The mortality rate is fairly low and difficult to estimate unless you test the entire population on a regular basis. It isn't like one of the outbreaks that kills 10%, 20%, 50% of the infected.

It shouldn't be ignored, but it also shouldn't be treated like a new black death. It is difficult for uninformed people to say "people are overreacting to a real threat".

[beat]

Other sports, too. My favorite, Formula 1 racing, is in trouble. The MacLaren team withdrew from sunday's first-in-season Australian GP after a team member tested positive for coronavirus, and there are unconfirmed rumors that the whole race will be canceled. (F1.com isn't saying that yet, but one of the top drivers, Sebastian Vettel, said in a news conference that drivers would "pull the handbrake" on the race if they didn't feel safe.)

The upcoming Chinese GP is being rescheduled, and the first-ever Vietnam GP might also fall victim. Bahrain GP is scheduled for Mar 22, so if Australia gets canceled, Bahrain probably will too.

This is a huge and extremely expensive sport, one of the most popular and lucrative in the world, with teams shipping dozens of personnel and many tons of equipment all over the world. The logistics are a nightmare if it gets changed.

[matwood]

This was basically a done deal this morning once the conferences canceled all of their ongoing tournaments, and schools like Duke stopped all sports.

[VWWHFSfQ]

When Duke and Kansas said they were dropping out of the tournament it was over. I bet the NCAA was still trying to figure out if they could still play without fans in attendance. But once the Blue Bloods left, they knew it was done.

[gz5]

hate it for the folks and families directly impacted but it is the safe decision. it does make you think about how much of this is temporary and how much results in sustained, macro level changes.

let's say many countries, companies and individuals "get used" to how we will need to live over the next weeks/months. what things that we used to take as "norms" may change, permanently, and what would the second and third order effects be?

for example, let's say travel-centric entertainment (sports, concerts etc) became more of an online experience than it already is, and WFH becomes more prevalent. now many folks with "discretionary income and time" theoretically have "extra" time and/or money. where would it go?

would we invest some of it into people and companies that are seeking to improve things for the people that don't have discretionary income/time? would we invest some of it in healthcare, biotech, etc. designed to try to prevent future similar events? or would a variant of parkinson's law just swallow it?

[tekstar]

Also.. what freedoms are now at risk in an attempt to prevent the next pandemic?

[AnimalMuppet]

But... but... now I don't have anything to watch while I'm quarantined!

Seriously, it's a bit of a bummer. I had hopes that this year a non-power-conference team (Gonzaga, San Diego State, Dayton) could win it all. I know there are bigger issues to worry about, but it's still a disappointment.

[jlizzle30]

ESports seem well positioned to take some of this mindshare.

[ohyeshedid]

MLS suspended it's season for 30 days. MLB opening day postponed for at least two weeks. NHL suspended it's season.

Nascar is likely next.

[brianTheDog]

I can see them not having fans at the races, but Nascar drivers and pit crews seem like they are at a lot less risk compared to basketball players.

I would actually think this would be a great time for Nascar to capitalize on other sports being suspended.

[dpeck]

This should result in an immediate extra year of scholarship eligibility for any of the kids effected.

[kevin_thibedeau]

The scholarship is for an academic degree, not resume polishing for a professional athletic league. It's in the name.

[Mountain_Skies]

Probably wouldn't be many who would take advantage of such an offer. Basketball players are much more likely to enter the NBA draft before graduation than football players are. The coaches of those that aren't good enough to be drafted likely are ready to use that scholarship slot for someone new. There may be a small number of players who are better than any recruit but not good enough to be drafted but not enough to make a policy around.

[paxys]

It doesn't affect student athletes all that much. There will still be a draft, as always.

[xwdv]

Why? These things happen, it’s life.

[SkyMarshal]

Why not instead cancel the live audience, but keep the tournament? Play the games in empty stadiums, but televise them. And test the players before each game starts.

Everything is going virtual now anyway, sports might as well too. That also maintains at least some of the ad revenue and other economic activity while still greatly minimizing risk of spreading the outbreak.

[TuringNYC]

>> And test the players before each game starts.

There are apparently no synchronous tests (e.g. antibody tests) in the US currently. Asynchronous tests (PCR) are hard to come by, and take 3 hours to run with a 2-3 day lead time at best.

[dmitrygr]

good. this country spends too much of people's money and attention on this nonsense. maybe we can make this permanent.

it is insane that one can get into a college with zero brain power just for being tall (and ncaa and co enable that). what possible use does society have for that long term?

[RocketSyntax]

So soft. Teams should just play. Anyone that isn't sick can play. It's a 5v5 game. Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled.

[danso]

The concern is not exclusively about the players' own health. Most of these players interact with other human beings.

[CydeWeys]

We don't even know who's sick and who isn't because we don't have enough test kits.

[thawaway1837]

The kids playing are the least at risk. It’s their fellow passengers, people they meet and who serve their food, clean their hotel rooms, fans, etc who are at risk.

[BOBOTWINSTON]

So socially responsible.

This hurts a lot for some of us. I am a Creighton fan and this was our first big year in a long time, maybe our best of all time.

Sports fans get accused of forgetting "it is all a game" sometimes. It is certainly more than a game when you think of how much some people's lives depend on the money from these events, but limiting the impact of this virus is certainly not "soft".

[slantyyz]

> Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled.

That was already announced before the NCAA cancellation.

[1] https://www.espn.com/tennis/story/_/id/28891268/atp-suspends...

[gnulinux]

Great majority of cases are asymptomatic, great majority of symptomatic cases are very mild possibly indistinguishable from common cold so people may be inclined to ignore it. So, it's not safe to have any gatherings of this scale since inevitably many people will be infected.

[egdod]

Except that people become contagious before they have symptoms, and we don’t really have a good testing regimen.