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The MLB is reportedly working with federal public health officials on a plan to restart the season in May.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the plan would involve players and managers being isolated from the general public and only travel to and from the stadium.
Via ESPN
The plan, sources said, would dictate all 30 teams play games at stadiums with no fans in the greater Phoenix area, including the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chase Field, 10 spring training facilities and perhaps other nearby fields. Players, coaching staffs and other essential personnel would be sequestered at local hotels, where they would live in relative isolation, and travel only to the stadium and back, sources said. Federal officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Health have been supportive of a plan that would adhere to strict isolation, promote social distancing and allow MLB to become the first professional sport to return
Of course, the plan hinges on the availability of covid-19 tests that produce results with a quick turnaround time.
Most important would be a significant increase in available coronavirus tests with a quick turnaround time, which sources familiar with the plan believe will happen by early May and allow MLB's testing not to diminish access for the general public. https://t.co/02leeDo2YC
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 7, 2020
The MLB would have to convince players to leave their families for four months which seems like a big hurdle to getting an agreement done.
The logistics to pull off such a plan would be enormous and cumbersome on the league side and require the buy-in of players, who sources expect to be skeptical of separating from their families for an indefinite amount of time — perhaps as long as 4½ months, if the inability to stem the coronavirus outbreak keeps teams from playing in their home stadiums in 2020.
This all sounds pretty insane but it’s not as crazy as the private island scenario that is being floated around by the UFC.