NBA might as well limit the league to teams with realistic shots at winning titles. i.e, franchises that have won championships this century

Lakers
Mavericks
Spurs
Warriors

Celtics
Cavaliers
Heat
Pistons
Raptors

Everyone else is delusional cannon-fodder. Maybe throw in the Clippers to balance out the conferences + they already share a facility with the Lakers.

Owners in general are addicted to expansion fees.

Baseball has the added problems of minor leagues and its antitrust exemption. They are going to get away with contracting down to 4 minor league teams per franchise plus a summer league at spring training complexes. But before COVID that was pissing off a bipartisan mix of Congresspeople. Throw in some major league contraction, and Congress may look to make them the villain and pull antitrust.

Baseball survived polio and TB without contracting. It'll survive this too, although the fringy teams are stuck because nobody is going to use public funds on a stadium

The NBA would go to relegation instead of contraction, and the NFL doesn't give a shit about anything.

MLS, on the other hand, is fucked. As is probably the NHL, which has an ongoing problem with its Canadian clubs.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

BCB commenters are up in arms about the disregard for human life.

If you look carefully, you will figure out my BCB user name. I tried at first, but no point trying to engage that bunch in debate.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Good.

I want to see what the plan looks like.

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I have no doubt they can come up with a plan to start. The tough part will be what happens when someone (or worse, multiple players) tests positive. Do they go on the “Covid 14 day DL”, or does the whole thing get shutdown again.

That's the part I want to see.

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If the plan is to shut it down if 1 person gets the Rona, then absolutely no reason to even try and start again. Probably for about 2 years.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Agreed.

That's a big question many players have as well.

Hopefully Manfred and the owners have a good answer.

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Right. If its one player here and there, then have a 14 or 15 day DL specifically for Covid quarantine. If not, Hawg is right.

Other changes I think that would make sense;

-Allow the roster to be 35 players, but only 25/26 can be active for each game

-To help minimize travel for some, only have the home team broadcast the games. I'm sure Cubs fans won't care if they have to watch the the Phillies feed of the games. If it means live baseball, I certainly don't give a shit if I have to hear the Indians PBP guys.

-With the airlines canceling MANY flights, maybe its possible for teams to use the same charter plane for at least part of the season. Perhaps freshly sanitized trains and buses could be used for shorter travel as well.

-MLB would do very well to stream every game online for free or a nominal fee with no blackouts. Like make MLBTV $10 for the whole season.

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They are already losing out on ticket revenue, and the whole country is begging for something to watch. The chances of this happening are zero.

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(REDACTED)

They'll have to do something about pitching changes. On the one hand, most starters won't be able to go more than 75 pitches at first. On the other hand, you don't want a team to rotate A/B squads of 9 pitchers each every game and use them all in matchups.

I think that Delta still has all of their specialized charter A319s that are tricked out for the NBA, with only 54 seats instead of 126.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. PEOPLE ARE DYING!!!!
No baseball

Yeah, fuck all the camera men, security guards, marketing staff, advertisers, RSN studio crews (not the hosts, but the camera and sound people and production assistants). They don't need to earn a living, their governors will take care of them.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

The NHL only had one problem franchise in Canada before all this went down, which was the Senators. The Oilers got their new arena, the Flames will get theirs, the Leafs and Habs keep the league running, the Canucks are right up there, and the Jets punch above their weight. The Senators have an absurdly rich TV deal but a rogue owner who doesn't want to spend any money and is stuck in a lousy arena, a stripped-down Palace of Auburn Hills way on the outskirts of town. The Sens built this place with the expectation that Ottawa would just continuously sprawl through the '90s and 2000s, but that never happened. There's also the problem that a good chunk of the Ottawa market is French, and their allegiances tend to lie with the Canadiens, Montreal being quite a bit closer to Ottawa/Gatineau than Tronna is. And again, when the arena is like 20 miles west of downtown, that's going to alienate people from the east, no matter which language they speak.

They've been trying to get an arena built in downtown Ottawa, near Parliament, but they can't seem to get shovels in the ground because they have to deal with the federal government, which in Canada must be a level of well-intentioned bureaucratic foot-dragging that Americans can only imagine, and they're not sure they want to approve an arena there. But it's just a hole in the ground and it's been one for years, I don't know what they're holding out for.

So anyway, my point is that Canada can be on pretty stable ground if things are up and running. If they lose all their revenue? Then they're in trouble, yeah.

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No time like the present. Once adopted, it's not going away.

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Cub fans should embrace the universal DH, unlike the rest of the NL, they don't have to find someone to fill the DH role, they've had a DH on their roster the last 5 seasons.

Looks like it us up to MLBPA tomorrow to approve the proposal and get this started

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

How much will teams lose without fans attending the games? The Brewers might go out of business.

Payers would be better off with a salary cap and floor based on total revenue like every other sport. Very few teams spend money to try and win.

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Players should call their bluff.

Cuz that's what it is.

Exactly.

Owners crying poor is hysterical.

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Prorated salaries. Period. If owners don't like it, open up the books. Let's check out ALL their streams of revenue.

Fuck baseball. Let the sport die. Just give me NFL.

If they actually have to abide by that 70 page list of precautionary rules they are just going to bang the season. There is no way in hell these guys are going to roll out of their vehicle like a high school summer leaguer in full uniform.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

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So, if there is baseball in 2020...do you guys think there is a possibility of attendance in the playoffs?

I mean, it'd be like 5,000 people, two at most together, 3 seats apart from the next pair, two rows between....type of situation?

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@audioidkid

I doesn't appear to me that either side is highly motivated to salvage any kind of a season. This all starts with the owners using this as cover for screwing the players out of money.

For Playoffs, we'll have to see what the NFL does. If their seats are empty, MLB won't have much leverage to open up stadiums.

Both sides are going to leave a whole lot of money on the table....I can't fault the players here. The MLB proposal is way too different from the current CBA in terms of rules / game format. This should all be about splitting what's left of the money and save game changes / format to a the new CBA. They just can't help themselves from being pigs.

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