Poor management on the player/team side with not likely not following protocol before arriving. And poor management on the MLS side with that porous bubble.
The reality is that I'm sure all these leagues are looking at the European leagues and saying "we can do that" but America isn't doing what Europe is doing in general, sooo.... I don't think pro sports are a good idea until and if we get to European levels.
I know it’s not USMNT related but Vela is out for the tournament for personal reasons (pregnant wife).
Looks Dallas is withdrawing completely from the tournament, so the pool of interesting young USMNT candidates in this MLS tourney gets sparser still.
I think MLS "had" to schedule something like this tournament, because both players and owners are going to get creamed with a completely cancelled season. Additionally, MLS owners (and players) had to act with the assumption that the US and Canadian federal governments - out of self-interest, if no other reason - would actively aim to suppress the virus to a reasonable level. The schedule of team arrivals into the bubble has definitely been problematic. I'm guessing it's been caused by the hesitance of players to stay in the bubble for too long and the unwillingness of owners to open their wallets. But I think the overarching problems here are outside of MLS's control. For example, you can't have an effective bubble if your test results aren't coming back in a speedy manner: Quest Diagnostics says demand for #COVID19 testing particularly in the South, Southwest and West regions of the U.S. has stretched turnaround time for results to an avg of 4-6 days for non-priority 1 patients (priority 1 = hospitalized patients & symptomatic healthcare workers) pic.twitter.com/gTvBLHhJsy— Meg Tirrell (@megtirrell) July 6, 2020
They wanted to be flashy and get their product in front of consumers before any others and didn't plan the thing out well enough and they didn't give a shit about what it could do to the players. The Women's league has screwed it up as well and I fully respect the players who refused to participate. Not at all surprising as the players are little more than widgets in the factory to the owners. Honestly, I'm just surprised and somewhat impressed that the other American sports have been more responsible thus far.
Judging by reports I've seen on Twitter, Nashville has at least 5-8 positive cases. I would guess that they're also on the verge of dropping out.
It’s impart because those other sports don’t rely as much on game day revenue to sustain themselves. They were also mostly through the season so their loses weren’t as much compared to the MLS that was just starting up.
So how exactly does MLS playing in EMPTY stadiums help their GAMEDAY revenue? The owners are actually losing MORE money by playing this tournament. TV contract money isn't guaranteed either. In order to get TV money each league HAS to play a certain number of games. Which is why the NBA is playing out the regular season to a certain number of games. The NBA has also been wanting to shift their season for years now. The Pandemic shutdown has given them a convenient avenue to do this. They start later (August), and finish by end of September and then start the 2020/21 season in mid December or on Christmas Day. MLB was supposed to start at the beginning of June! Their labor issues are what has caused their delayed restart.
Probably not a coincidence that the league where players have the least leverage is the league that is trying to get going first.
ESPN FC was interviewing somebody and they asked him if Dallas had any responsibility and the guy said "these things are going to happen". Then they asked him about how meals were supposed to be brought to the players' individual floors but apparently the staff didn't do that so everybody was wandering around intermingling and the guy said "it's a learning experience". Imagine thinking about athletes' health as a "learning experience" in the middle of covid19. My own feeling was that they should have rearranged schedules and started up approximately when Germany did and simply schedule games between nearby teams where players could drive to games. It's all of 180 miles from Seattle to Portland, e.g. It's 337 miles from Toronto to Montreal. New York to Montreal is 378 mi
The best choice would have been to fully isolate the players from the moment that they announced the tournament, no going out at all. The team does the shopping, players go to training and home until it's time to fly to Orlando.
Their issue is their trying to get any money. Their losing their largest revenue. They can’t just write the season off. So they rushed to put something together.
Also, as a growing league, MLS is far less prepared to absorb the impact of not being in the public consciousness (on its 25th anniversary no less) for an entire season than other, more established sports leagues. Consider the impact to a team like Nashville, for example, who wrote a lot of checks hoping to play their first season this year.
I'm surprised Vela is the only one I've heard that is taking this off. I'm sure some of it is financial and he's likely in a much better spot than most. But, if you want me to risk my life to make sure your balance sheet doesn't take too big of a hit, I'd be telling you to get lost. Surprising to me more players haven't bailed yet.
Apparently Jonathan Lewis and Keegan Rosenberry have been missing from training for Colorado. The team has had 2 positive tests in June, and they were apparently the only 2 players missing... Source: https://www.coloradorapids.com/post/2020/07/04/elevate-0303-final-preparations?autoplay=true
As usual, the US Soccer media is making up excuses and reasons to explain MLS behaviour. They do it with USSF all the time. Every single thing I've heard is that all the cases were from, "outside the bubble". Tenorio and Steksjal must have said it 100 times on their podcast. On twitter, they are all saying it. But 3rd Degree, the excellent FCD source laid out the timeline and at least one case was caught in Orlando. The company that MLS contracted (no pun intennded) to do the testing seems to be not very good at it. The in market protocol seems to have been not thought out correctly. If you were going to roll the dice on what was happening before arrival, then they should have had everyone arrive 3+ weeks before. Of course, the players didn't want to be stuck in Florida for months, so that was a problem. At that point, they should have really come down hard on isolation in home markets for 3+ weeks. The Bundesliga had players basically quarantine at home for that long, then they came for individual workouts, then groups of 2, 3, 5, etc. Florida was a dumb choice for many reasons. But the political environment there is very conducive to dumb gatherings. MLS should have sucked it up for charters and just played in empty stadiums in different markets like all the other soccer leagues. At least then, the entire league isn't in one hotel infecting each other. Playing a soccer match for 90 min outside is probably low risk between teams. Staying in a hotel is high risk. Staying in a hotel for weeks is very high risk. Doing it with a testing company with a 5% failure rate is a recipe for disaster.