Dennis Perrotta, a retired state epidemiologist, went to the Spurs-Mavericks game on March 10 in San Antonio. He's had partial season tickets for about the last 10 years and makes a 200-mile round trip from his ranch in Bastrop County to the AT&T Center every few weeks.
That night the sports fan in Perrotta was having a good time: The Spurs beat the favored Mavs, a high note in a lackluster season. But the public health expert in Perrotta was starting to worry. He was inches away from other fans who were touching each other while yelling and cheering. "When I came home," Perrotta said, "I talked to my wife and said, 'I'm not really comfortable going to the games anymore.'"
The NBA postponed its season the next night. Since then, the coronavirus pandemic has shut down the sporting world. The last major athletic event held in Fort Worth was a TCU men's basketball game against Oklahoma on March 7. Globe Life Field's scheduled Opening Day, for March 31, has come and gone. The PGA has not postponed the Colonial, but the Masters, which was supposed to end on Easter Sunday, was moved to November. Texas Motor Speedway won't host its IndyCar race in June if fans can't come.
Yet as the cancellations continue and coronavirus deaths multiply, calls to resume sports have hastened. Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy suggested players should return to campus May 1 because they would "have the ability to fight this virus off." Major League Baseball leaders have proposed hosting all 162 games in Arizona with the players isolated at hotels. President Donald Trump predicted on a conference call with professional sports commissioners the NFL would begin on time in September. He said in a White House briefing, "I want fans back in the arenas."
Without sports, salaries, TV contracts and ticket revenues worth billions of dollars could disappear. But bringing back sports too soon risks the health of athletes, coaches, referees, athletic trainers, security guards and concession stand workers, not to mention tens of thousands of fans _ who, as Perrotta realized in San Antonio, literally bump elbows inside America's stadiums _ and the thousands of others they come into contact with when the game ends.
The tug of war between caution and a willingness to quickly return to normal has pitted some sports leaders against each other and against public health officials. Experts insist sports _ at least in the way we've known them _ are unlikely to come back soon, even in time for football season. "My crystal ball, which is not infallible, says we're not going to be there in the fall," said Catherine Troisi, PhD, an infectious disease epidemiologist at UT Health School of Public Health in Houston.
