The sports and entertainment world responds to the coronavirus
Hi everyone, hope you’re staying safe in these turbulent times, and thanks for joining us here at Plain English, where we’re practicing social distancing and generally taking it easy. I’m Jeff. Your producer is JR. And this is Plain English lesson number 245. The full lesson can be found at PlainEnglish.com/245.
Coming up today: Stadiums are empty. Sports channels have no events to cover. Cruise ships are docked. Broadway is dark. Movie sets are quiet. The entertainment industry has responded to the coronavirus crisis by canceling large gatherings. Later in the episode, we’ll talk about the phrasal verb “come into contact with.” And have you ever heard the phrase “no matter”? If so, then you’ll want to watch today’s video lesson at PlainEnglsh.com/245. The video lesson talks about how to use “no matter” in a sentence—it’s a good one.
Live sports, theater, festivals canceled as virus impact spreads
There’s a famous saying in show business: “The show must go on.” It means that, no matter what happens, no matter what goes wrong, you have to give the customers what they paid for. The show must go on.
In the wake of the coronavirus, the sports and entertainment industries decided: the show must not go on. With concerns about large gatherings of people, and widespread uncertainty about the virus, one global entertainment institution after another shut down.
It started with sports. This is a big time in the American sports calendar, where almost every major sport is either at the end or the beginning of its season. American college basketball was under pressure to protect the university students playing in March Madness, a mega-popular basketball tournament held in March and April each year. The NCAA, the governing body of university sports, first said the tournament would be held without any fans; it later bowed to the pressure and canceled the tournament entirely.
A player in America’s professional basketball league fell ill the day of a game—and tested positive late in the afternoon. Just minutes before his team was scheduled to play, a medical official sprinted onto the court to talk with the officials, who called the game off. Basketball is a contact sport, and dozens of players from other teams had to be quarantined because they would have come into contact with the infected player. Shortly thereafter, the league suspended the season, and the entire Utah Jazz team had to be quarantined in their arena.
The National Hockey League shares stadiums and locker rooms with the basketball teams and they, too, suspended their season
The basketball and hockey seasons are coming to a close, but baseball is just getting started. America’s baseball league was a holdout, saying they would avoid playing in areas affected by the virus, but that the games would be played. But as state governors increasingly banned large gatherings of people, the idea of moving games to safe sites became untenable. Baseball canceled the second half of its preseason and delayed the start of its season by at least two weeks. Japan’s professional baseball league is delayed by two weeks as well.
Elsewhere in sports, several tournaments on the professional golf circuit were either canceled or delayed, including the Master’s. America’s soccer league suspended play for 30 days. The Boston Marathon was postponed; the London Marathon was postponed. The English Premier League season has been suspended until April 4. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, France, and Germany saw their soccer leagues suspended; Portugal’s games are being played with no fans.
The amusement and entertainment industry is also canceling events. Disney announced that its theme parks would close and filming on all Disney movies would be suspended. Four major cruise lines all suspended operations for a month. The K-Pop concert series in Seoul was canceled; concert tours by Pearl Jam, Avril Lavigne, Miley Cyrus were also called off. E3, a video game tournament in Los Angeles, was canceled.
A famous music and culture festival called South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, was canceled this year, leaving contractors and vendors without their biggest annual source of revenue. St. Patrick’s Day parades in Ireland and America were canceled. Tokyo’s Cherry Blossom festival and Okinawa’s Azalea festival were canceled. New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art were closed, as were dozens of other museums around the world.
Broadway, America’s most famous theater district, is dark. The Broadway League, a trade association representing the theater, announced that all live performances would be canceled from March 12 through at least April 12.
The Governor of New York announced a ban on all public gatherings of 500 people or more, with the exception of public transportation, nursing homes, schools and hospitals. He said Broadway could continue to operate, but at 50 percent capacity. However, The Broadway League said it would voluntarily close down for the health and safety of both performers and patrons.
Movie theaters in most parts of the world remain open, but they won’t be showing some of the spring’s expected blockbusters. The release of “No Time to Die,” the new James Bond movie, was delayed. Other similar announcements followed; if you’ve been waiting for the ninth installment of “Fast and Furious,” you’ll now have to wait eleven more months: that film’s release was delayed until spring 2021.
Filming of several big movies, including a new “Mission: Impossible” movie, has been paused. Tom Hanks and his wife announced they had tested positive for coronavirus. They contracted it while filming a movie about Elvis Presley.
I was supposed to go to a basketball game, but that was canceled. And now we’re all working from home, but I’m stuck without any games to watch at night. So I guess it’s catching up on my Netflix shows and documentaries.
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