FanPost

The MLB Vs The Bubble - An NFL Guide On How To Run A Season In Times Of Corona

It's been 5 months since Corona has started hit North America and sports are finally starting to get going again and we are seeing two clear and different philosophies on how to run pro sports: the MLB's traveling model and the NBA and NHL's "bubble" models. These are two drastically different approaches both with their pros and cons; but it is starting to be clear that only one of these two models work (Hint: it ain't the MLB's). In this Fanpost I'm going to take a quick look at the two approaches and what I think the NFL will need to do if they want to play a full season in 2020.

THE TWO MODELS

In the month or so since MLB has started up again with a model that involves players moving from city to city and playing in empty stadiums. This model has resulted in 78 players going on MLB's covid list (with 35 cases still active), in the Blue Jays losing their home for the season and moving to Buffalo, in the Florid Marlins putting their season on hiatus after 18 positive tests, in multiple teams having players vote to not to travel for certain games, and MLB Commish Rob Manfred threatening to suspend the season after another round of positive tests this week.

On the other side of things you have the NHL's and the NBA's bubble approaches; with the NHL aborting 2 bubbles for 24 teams and the NBA adopting one bubble for 22 teams (and about half as many players as the NHL). The NHL for it,s part had 30 positive cases in phase 2 of their re-opening, 13 cases in phase 3, and zero cases in phase 4. The NBA has had a total of 28 positive cases spread over a 4 month period. Both leagues have not had a single Covid case once the players have entered their respective bubbles.

It's clear which model is a success and which model is a failure. It's also interesting to note which model the NFL intends on adopting (hint: it ain't the one with zero active cases). This has lead to many fans, even here if the rumblings, saying that there won't be a season. And they are right, under the current model where teams would travel to partially filled stadiums, the season would end in disaster.

But if you go to the bubble model, you have a shot at partial season, or if you find the right city/region maybe even a full season.

Hub Cities And the NFL in a Bubble

Firstly you acknowledge that you have to go into a hub city/cities. Moving around is simply not going to work. Yes it means no/limited fans, yes it mean lost revenue. But it also means playing most if not all of your games. I have two models, one for a shortened season, and one for a full season. Obviously my preference would be for a full season so I will spend most of my effort explaining that. (I will also be heavily borrowing from a conversation from another post, so a quick shoutout to Good Apollo and Texpat79 for their contributions as I do straight up steal some of their ideas here).

Firstly you need to identify possible hub cities/regions around the US. Now there is a lot to think about here: you need plenty of hotel rooms on short notice, you need multiple pro quality stadiums in short proximity to each other, you need even more practice facilities in close proximity to the stadiums and hotels, you need an area that is doing relatively well with Covid19 where the players can be separated from the public*, and most importantly local governments that are willing to participate.

For this reason, cities and regions that are major football hotspots would/should be the only ones cosidered; Southern California, Dallas/Forth Worth, Northern Florida, and Ohio are the regions that immediately come to mind.

*note that this doesn't exclude hotspots from consideration as both Toronto and Orlando are covid hotspots right now, but players have been successfully separated from the public and have not had any cases since entering their bubbles

Shortened 12 game season

You split the league into conference and cancel the inter-conference games. You go into two hubs that have 3 or 4 viable stadiums each and you play your games on Saturdays and Sundays.

Full 16 game season

This will be harder to pull off logistically , but I think it can be done. You need one region with 5 or 6 pro-quality stadiums. You split your schedule to play 4 or 5 games per day over Friday, Satuday and Sundays and you can play ALL your games.

***BOTH SCENARIOS GIAVE YOU THE POSSIBILITY TO ALSO PLAY ALL YOUR PRIME TIME GAMES AS IS.

My Plan for a FULL NFL Season

You move the NFL to the one region in the US that has 6 Stadiums, plenty of logging, and local governments that would be willing to host you: the greater Dallas/Fort Worth/Austin/College Station region.

Stadiums: you have plenty of stadiums in the greater Dallas region with AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Gerald J. Ford Stadium at SMU, Amon G. Carter Stadium at TCU, the Cotton-Bowl Stadium all in Dallas, then in relatively close proximity you have Kyle Field at Texas A&M, and Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas in Austin.

There are also hundreds of high schools that have small stadiums that could act as practice fields. And most importantly, state and local governments that would probably love to host the NFL for a full season.

Players: You have players put up multiple clean tests in a row before entering their "bubbles". Then you put the players up in hotel rooms and have them bus to practices and games. They won't interact with anyone that hasn't been cleared. The practice fields might be the hardest part to obtain.

Games: You rotate your prime time games in the better stadiums, maybe even just keep JerryWorld for the Thusday Night, Sunday Night and Monday night games. You have 1 game per day from Friday through Sunday for the other stadiums and have a DEEP clean in between each game.

PLAY THE SEASON

Most players would be on board with the location, you'd have enough stadiums, you likely have local government support, and you get to stroke the ego of the owner of the league's most valuable franchise. AND THE FANS GET TO WATCH A FULL SEASON OF FOOTBALL!

Th only hick up is that we'd need to convince the owners to put aside their greed and swallow a full season of lost attendance revenue..... which is why it won't happen.

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.