Because of the coronavirus, the State of Washington has banned crowds of over 250 people. As a result, the Seattle Mariners may not be able to play their first two series at home, and they are now investigating playing those series at their Spring Training facility in Arizona.

The City of San Francisco and Santa Clara County has banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people. That means the Golden State Warriors are going to play in an empty arena, and depending on how long this measure is put into effect, it will mean the San Francisco Giants are going to do the same to begin the 2020 season.

The City of Philadelphia has cancelled their annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, and they are recommending not having gatherings of 5,000 people or more. At the moment, this is not a ban which interferes with the Flyers, 76ers, or Phillies per se. However, if those teams chose to follow the recommendation, that would mean playing in empty stadiums.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWin is asking for sporting events to be open just for “athletes, parents, and others essential to the game.” With this plan being implemented, that would be playing the NCAA First Four in an empty arena. It would also mean empty stadiums for the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians.

New York Governor Cuomo has created a containment zone around New Rochelle in an attempt to “try to control the spread of the coronavirus in the largest cluster in the United States.” As part of the containment, there are no large indoor or outdoor public gatherings. New Rochelle is approximately 12 miles away from Yankee Stadium and 13 miles from Citi Field.

There are a number of businesses and universities which are moving to close down and have everyone work/learn remotely. If you are tracking it, that includes a number of schools in cities or metropolitan areas with an MLB team:

• Harvard – Boston Red Sox
• UCLA – Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels
• Columbia – New York Yankees and New York Mets
• University of California, San Diego – San Diego Padres
• Stanford – San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics

This is not an exhaustive list, and it is one which will continue to grow. As the days and weeks past, it is becoming increasingly clear professional sports leagues need to have contingencies put into place. As we are seeing with the NBA, so far that means playing in empty arenas.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the NIH and part of the White House coronavirus task force, just told a congressional committee that the NBA shouldn’t be playing in front of crowds right now.

— Jane McManus (@janesports) March 11, 2020

In some sense, the biggest issue is for the NBA and NHL as their seasons are winding down, and they are about to begin the playoffs in a month. Of course, a bigger issue is public health and preventing the spread of disease.

Right now, MLB is not face with an interruption of their season as the 2020 season has not yet begun. In fact, there is still time to implement plans to postpone the beginning of the season, move games, or possibly play in empty stadiums. No matter what, MLB needs to find a way to accommodate fans.

As more schools shut down and municipalities implement bans on large public gatherings, it becomes increasingly clear Major League Baseball should act quickly to delay the start of the season. This isn’t something anyone wants to see, but MLB needs to act quickly and have a plan in place before plans are forced upon them.

Right now, the easiest solution is to permit teams to continue working out in Florida and Arizona for as long as they are permitted. They can then wait and see how everything with the coronavirus shakes out.

There are a number of potential solutions with MLB beginning the season at a time and point in the schedule where the CDC advises the threat of the disease is over leaving them to schedule makeup games throughout the season. They could also just cancel those games if making up those games is impossible or impractical.

Whatever the case, with each passing day, we see the ability to attend and watch sporting events is being directly impacted by the coronavirus. The issue now being increasingly forced upon Major League Baseball is how they plan to adapt. This is going to require leadership from Rob Manfred, who we all hope is willing to do what is best for the fans and the sport.

At this point, it is difficult to see a better solution for him than postponing the start of the season.