Category Archives: General Interest

NBA Returns in July

Posted on by
Reply

Source: Statista

The month of June is normally scheduled for the NBA Finals, where two final teams meet after a long, hard-fought season to decide on the champion of the league. This June, however, there is no championship – the regular season being suspended back in March due to COVID-19 concerns.

After months of planning and debate, however, the NBA has announced they’ll be continuing the season and diving almost immediately into the playoffs on July 31. Out of the 30 teams in the league, the top 22 from this suspended season will be invited to live and play in Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. The teams will play 8 seeding games to fill a 16-team playoff bracket, and then playoffs will begin.

Coaches, players and essential staff will be required to quarantine among themselves for the entire duration of the seeding and playoff games. Regular COVID-19 tests will be administered in Orlando living quarters, although specifics haven’t been announced as to what the league will do if (or when) positive cases are discovered. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he’s confident they will have the necessary precautions to ensure teams can continue competing.

The NBA is another global league attempting to reopen amid ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks. The Bundesliga in Germany has resumed league play, using regular testing precautions and virtual crowd noises as they continue to play in empty stadiums. However, other leagues, such as the NHL in the U.S., have canceled the remainder of their seasons and will wait until next year. Baseball and football in the U.S. still have looming questions as to how or if they’ll continue.

Boutique League? Korean Baseball in the Spotlight

Posted on by
Reply

Source: Statista

Lacking an operational baseball league at home because of the coronavirus pandemic, some American sports fans have turned to watching Korean baseball instead. The Korean Professional Baseball League – KBO for short – has been broadcasting on ESPN late at night and early in the mornings and has given American fans a different angle on their favorite sport. In South Korea, the game fosters less formulaic players when compared to American baseball and teams also embrace celebrating successful plays, The Atlantic writes.

Yet, TV viewers might not get the whole South Korean baseball experience as games in the country are still carried out without an audience – except for placards showing photos of fans wearing face masks. Despite coronavirus cases being largely under control in the country since early April, caution prevails.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is certainly the bigger league with more financial backing, as seen in annual attendance and player salaries. Still, Korean baseball has something American baseball lacks – a young fan base. While U.S. baseball has been dealing with fans who are greying, baseball is more of a young peoples’ sport in Korea. 25 percent of Koreans between the ages of 18 and 29 years old said they were very or somewhat interested in baseball and 46 percent of 40 to 49-year-olds said the same (link in Korean). In the U.S., the range of those interested between the ages of 18 and 49 years did not exceed 28 percent. Overall interest in the sport was also higher in Korea at 34 percent of adults, compared with just 29 percent in the U.S.