After one month, the "bubble" at Disney World in Orlando is working, pretty much, with no positive COVID-19 tests and high TV ratings for the truncated season and partial roster of teams. But there are still two months to go, and, as The Athletic's David Aldridge and John Hollinger reported yesterday, the unnatural situation is causing stress.
Some think the season should be pushed back to March, since that might accommodate a vaccine or other measures that would put some fans in seats and especially help small-market teams.
So that means, as they write, Bubbles, bubbles, toil and troubles: there’s no clear NBA picture for 2020-21. There are question marks about timing, vaccine, and presence of fans. They suggest it's "increasingly unlikely" the season would start by the previously announced date of Dec. 1 date,
Some think the season should be pushed back to March, since that might accommodate a vaccine or other measures that would put some fans in seats and especially help small-market teams.
And though playing in another bubble would be costly, it may be the only solution, if the pandemic isn't arrested. And this is interesting:
Meanwhile, there is talk of as many as four bubbles next season, according to sources. Given the league’s current success housing 22 teams at the Wide World of Sports Complex, a return to Disney is a given, as is using Las Vegas, the runner-up to Orlando this year. There just isn’t another city that far west (any city in California, right now, is a non-starter, given the explosion of COVID cases there) with the hotel space and big-event experience of Vegas. One source says New York and the Dallas-Fort Worth area are two other potential bubble cities; New York not only has what would be an otherwise empty Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and Barclays Center in Brooklyn as venues, but also Basketball City, the longtime Manhattan venue by the Hudson with numerous courts available, for potential practices.That would confirm a flip from just a few months ago: New York would be a relatively attractive and safe(r) place to gather, rather than the center of the country's pandemic pain.
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