NBA fans are anxiously awaiting the return of the season after it was suspended amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Now that the CDC has issued a guidance effectively banning all events with 50 or more people for the next eight weeks, the league is suggesting that mid-to-late June may be the earliest the league can resume.
CDC recommendation of no events of 50-plus people for next two months comes as a number of NBA owners and executives increasingly believe a best case scenario is a mid-to-late June return to play — with no fans. League's scouting for possible arena dates all the way thru August.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 15, 2020
Not only that, but there are concerns within the league that the season may not resume at all due to the U.S.’s failure to produce COVID-19 tests fast enough.
“Our world has changed since Wednesday’s [board of governors] call,” one team president told ESPN, in reference to the night the league suspended operations. “The reality isn’t lost on anyone right now.”
The potential loss in revenue is being calculated based on three separate scenarios — the cost of resuming the season without fans present, the cost of playing playoff games with fans in attendance, and the cost of shutting down the season altogether.
Commissioner Adam Silver is said to be encouraging the league to be open to experimenting in response to the unique challenge that’s been presented.
There’s also a working plan to bring back the league without fans and teams have been told to look into arena dates that could be secured for a postseason in August. Smaller venues outside of the teams’ home arenas are also being considered.
