New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that professional sports teams will resume their training camps this week.
Most professional sports were forced to pause their seasons in mid-March because of the coronavirus outbreak. On Sunday, Cuomo announced that teams in New York will be allowed to return to training and urged the leagues to consider resuming games without audiences present.
“Starting today, all the New York professional sports leagues will be able to begin training camps. I believe that sports that can come back without having people in the stadium, without having people in the arena — do it,” the Democrat said. “Do it. Work out the economics if you can. We want you up.”
“We want people to be able to watch sports, to the extent that people are still staying home. It gives people something to do. It’s a return to normalcy. So, we are working and encouraging all sports teams to start their training camps as soon as possible, and we’ll work with them to make sure that can happen,” he added.
Some professional sports have resumed without crowds. Both UFC and NASCAR have held contests since the pandemic began. The German soccer league, Bundesliga, has also resumed play without crowds. The events haven’t gone perfectly, however. Both UFC and Bundesliga had athletes test positive for the virus prior to matches.
As for New York teams, both the Yankees and the Mets are planning to do training in Florida. The NBA is also considering resuming games in Florida and is reportedly in talks with Disney World to host the competitions.
