10 Tips on How to Bring Your Sport Back During a Pandemic
Fake crowd noise is good. So is shaming players who break the rules.
By Will Leitch
This weekend, team sports reached a couple of noteworthy milestones. In Germany, the Bundesliga, one of the top soccer leagues in the world, completed its 2019–20 season, which had been suspended in early March, with Bayern Munich winning its eighth consecutive title. And here in the United States, the National Women’s Soccer League became the first major North American sports league to begin play with its Challenge Cup, a tournament in Utah that has replaced the regular season and will last through July 26.
Simply finishing up a season was once a routine accomplishment in pro sports. Now it’s a major achievement. And while it’s an open question as to whether major sports should even be happening right now — there’s a contingent of people who think it’s immoral to be playing — every league is either under way or plotting a return regardless. So what did the ones who have returned successfully do so well? Here’s a look at ten lessons from the Bundesliga and the NWSL — as well as other leagues still playing, like the Premier League — that the NFL, NBA, and others could learn from.
