As the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, has spread around the globe in recent months, tournaments, games and other sporting events have been canceled, while others have been modified. The NCAA announced Wednesday that both the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be played without fans, and Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League knockout clash with Borussia Dortmund will take place behind closed doors Wednesday night.
As fears mount, there is talk of modifications to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and professional sports leagues in the U.S. and abroad are trying to determine the best course of action as well. Here’s a look at how the coronavirus is affecting sports in the U.S. and around the world:
NCAA
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March 11: NCAA tournament will be played without fans: The NCAA made the unprecedented decision to hold the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments without fans because of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
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March 11: Ohio to issue order preventing fans at “mass gatherings”: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will soon issue an order preventing fans from attending “mass gatherings,” which will impact the NCAA’s First Four next week at Dayton Arena, and first- and second-round games in Cleveland.
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March 11: Ivy League cancels all spring sports: The Ivy League is canceling all spring sports for the 2019-20 school year. The decision of the member university presidents was unanimous.
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March 11: 2020 College Basketball Invitational cancelled: The 2020 College Basketball Invitational, created in the 2007-08 season, has been cancelled and will resume in 2021. The CBI selects 16 teams that are not picked for the NCAA tournament or NIT.
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March 11: USC bans fans from all home athletic events: In response to the coronavirus outbreak, fans will be unable to attend home athletic events at USC starting Wednesday and continuing through March 29.
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March 10: Big West to play its tournaments without fans: The Big West will play its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments this week without fans. The women’s tournament began Tuesday night on Long Beach State’s campus and both tournaments will be played at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, on Thursday-Saturday.
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March 10: MAC tournament to go on without fans: Hours after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recommended Tuesday that sporting events at indoor facilities in the state take place without spectators, the Mid-American Conference announced a “restricted attendance policy” for its men’s and women’s postseason tournaments in Cleveland, closing both events to the general public.
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March 10: Ivy League cancels conference basketball tournaments: Neither the men’s or women’s Ivy League conference tournaments, which were scheduled to be played in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will take place this year. Yale will receive the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA men’s tournament, while Princeton will receive the automatic bid for the NCAA women’s tournament.
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March 4: Chicago State hoops team not traveling: The Chicago State men’s basketball team will not travel for two regularly scheduled Western Athletic Conference games this week, and its women’s team will not host two games, the school said, citing the spread of the coronavirus.
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March 4: UMKC won’t play in Seattle: The University of Missouri-Kansas City will not play its road game at Seattle due to concerns over the coronavirus, the WAC announced.
Olympic sports
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March 11: World Figure Skating Championships canceled: The World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal have been canceled due to public health concerns related to the spread of the coronavirus.
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March 11: Tokyo Olympic president dismisses comments about delaying 2020 Games: Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee, said a board member who said the 2020 Games should be delayed a year or two because of the coronavirus has apologized and the games are going forward as planned in July.
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March 10: The International Judo Federation cancels all Olympic qualifying events through April: Qualifying events in Russia, Georgia and Turkey have been canceled, with the federation saying it wants to keep athletes “safe.”
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March 9: Fans banned from Tokyo 2020 torch-lighting ceremony in Greece: For the first time since the 1984 Olympics, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia will be held without spectators. Greece’s Olympic Committee said spectators would be excluded from both the dress rehearsal Wednesday and the ceremony Thursday.
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March 6: Tokyo organizers held a spectator-less test event: Most sporting events and large gatherings in Tokyo have been cancelled, but a climbing event on Friday took place with no fans and no top athletes. Instead, amateurs tested the climbing facility.
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March 4: The International Olympic Committee says 2020 Olympics are going forward: After an executive board meeting in Switzerland, the IOC remains steadfast in Tokyo going forward as planned on July 24.
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March 3: Coronavirus and the Tokyo Olympics: A lot of questions, few answers: The IOC wants the 2020 Olympics to go forward as planned, but the unknown nature of the coronavirus puts that in doubt.
NBA
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March 11: Warriors to play next home game without fans: The Golden State Warriors will play Thursday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets with no fans inside Chase Center amid an order with the City and County of San Francisco. The Warriors are not scheduled to play at Chase Center again until March 25.
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March 11: NIH director recommends NBA close out fans from games: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a congressional committee Wednesday that he would recommend the NBA not allow fans at games in response to the coronavirus.
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March 11: Could the NBA move games? The NBA has mulled moving games from a city with a large coronavirus cluster to the away opponent’s arena if that city hasn’t suffered an outbreak, or possibly neutral cities and sites. The NBA’s board of governors has a conference call with the NBA commissioner’s office Wednesday.
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March 10: LeBron will “listen” if NBA bars fans over virus: LeBron James said he would be “very disappointed” if the NBA decided to play games without fans in response to the coronavirus crisis, but admitted he would “listen” to the league if that’s what it decided to do.
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March 9: Locker room access at NBA games to be limited: The NBA plans to dramatically curb access to players in locker rooms, which means limiting access to what the NBA considers to be nonessential team personnel.
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March 9: NBA books conference call to discuss coronavirus strategy: The NBA has scheduled a conference call with team owners and governors to discuss next steps in the growing coronavirus crisis, league sources told ESPN.
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March 2: Fist-bumps among short-term recommendations as NBA plots coronavirus strategy, memo says: Among the NBA’s short-term recommendations to teams in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, players should utilize fist-bumps over high-fives with fans and avoid taking items such as pens, balls and jerseys to autograph, according to a memo to teams obtained by ESPN.
MLB
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March 11: Mariners won’t play games in Seattle in March: The Mariners will move home games out of Seattle through the end of March, following the state of Washington’s decision to ban large group events as a response to the coronavirus outbreak.
NHL
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March 10: Sharks might host games without fans: The San Jose Sharks might play home games in an empty arena after Santa Clara County, California, banned mass gatherings.
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March 9: Santa Clara County bans gatherings of 1,000-plus: Following the first death in San Jose, there are now serious doubts about the status of three San Jose Sharks hockey games, the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at Stanford University and one MLS game. The county announced a ban of all large gatherings of at least 1,000 people for the rest of March.
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March 5: Sharks to play despite concerns: The San Jose Sharks are playing their home game against the Minnesota Wild despite a recommendation from Santa Clara County to “cancel mass gatherings” as the coronavirus spreads.
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March 4: NHL limiting employee travel: The NHL is not allowing its employees to make work-related trips outside of North America in response to the global fears over the coronavirus.
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March 2: NHL looking at plans if coronavirus spreads: The NHL is “starting to explore contingency plans” should the coronavirus become a more significant health threat in North America ahead of the 2019-20 NHL playoffs, deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN.
XFL
Tennis
esports
World football
WWE
Formula One
Golf
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March 11: European Tour postpones Indian Open: The European Tour has decided to postpone the Indian Open, which was due to take place March 19-22.
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March 10: PGA Tour has no plans to cancel events: PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that the tour has no plans to cancel upcoming events, including the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, on March 25-29.
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