Expect sports to be “the wild west” in transitional season

Gainer the Gopher makes his rounds after a Roughriders TD in 2019.

Do not expect it to be business as usual for the overall sports scene in the world for the upcoming 2021-22 winter season.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world will still be throwing wrenches into plans in the upcoming campaign even as vaccines for the virus continue to roll out.

Life in North America is proceeding like the COVID-19 pandemic is in its concluding run. You can expect sports leagues at all levels will do whatever they can to ensure that major championship events happen.

Still, you can expect to see inconsistencies on how sports will be rolled out dependent on league and geography. Those inconsistencies have shown up this past week.

Early Friday morning, those that woke up in Canada got to see the country’s senior national women’s soccer team win the gold medal game at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, on television. Canada and Sweden played to a 1-1 draw thru regulation and extra time before Canada came away with top spot pulled out a 3-2 win in a penalty kick shootout that went six rounds.

That contest like the whole Summer Olympics was played without fans in attendance. Players wore facemasks during the medal presentation ceremonies.

The precautions are in place as Japan is facing a health care crisis due to the spread of COVID-19.

On Friday evening in Regina, Saskatchewan, a sellout crowd of 33,350 spectators filled into Mosaic Stadium to watch the Saskatchewan Roughriders open their CFL schedule taking a 31-0 lead on the visiting British Columbia Lions before holding on to a 33-29 victory.

It marked the first time in 628 days the Roughriders played a game. The 2020 CFL was lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cody Fajardo throw a pass for the Roughriders in 2019.

Those that attended Friday’s Roughriders game didn’t have to show proof of vaccination. That was a big contrast from Thursday’s CFL opener in Winnipeg, Man., where the host Blue Bombers downed the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats 19-6.

The Bombers announced an attendance of 29,376 which was just over 3,000 short of a sellout at IG Field. Those that attended Thursday’s CFL clash in Winnipeg had to show proof of vaccination for COVID-19 to gatekeepers before entering the Bombers home park.

“Vaccination” will be the key word in the sports scene going forward. Going hand in hand regarding the issue of vaccination will be question about whether games will be forfeited if teams are unable to play due to a COVID-19 breakout.

It is assumed a forfeit rule will motivate those involved in sports to get fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

On Tuesday, the CFL announced a COVID-19 game cancellation policy.

If COVID-19 issues force a game to be cancelled and it can’t be rescheduled where one club incurs COVID-19 issues, that team will forfeit with its opponent being credited with a 1-0 victory.

If COVID-19 issues are prevalent on both teams, both clubs will be credited with a loss.

In both scenarios, players will be paid for forfeited games, if a team can prove that 85 per cent or more of its contracted players are vaccinated at least partially or fully. If a team falls below the 85 per cent threshold, players will not be paid.

As of Friday, only three of the CFL’s nine clubs have reached that 85 per cent threshold.

Back on July 22, news broke that the NFL had a forfeit policy regarding COVID-19 outbreaks. If a game during the 18-week NFL regular season can’t be rescheduled due to a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, the team with the outbreak will forfeit and be credited with a loss.

The CHL is expecting to hold a complete season in 2021-22.

Players on both teams will not be paid for the lost contest. The team responsible for the cancelled game due to unvaccinated players will cover financial losses and be subject to potential discipline from the Commissioner’s office.

In Canada, it remains to be seen if these types of policies will be mirrored in circuits like the CHL, CJFL, U Sports, junior A hockey leagues, under-18 AAA hockey circuits or high school leagues. The same goes for circuits like the NLL, which plays in both countries.

In recent days, it is easy to find news stories that vaccination efforts for COVID-19 in both the United States and Canada have stagnated.

In January, the United States experienced days where it was dealing with 279,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day. As vaccines rolled out, the United States began to experience days where it was only experiencing around 6,000 new COVID-19 cases a day at points in June.

Over the past week, has become common for the United States to have days with over 125,000 new COVID-19 cases a day as vaccinations stall. The reports commonly say over 95 per cent of those new cases are from people who are not vaccinated for COVID-19.

In Canada, new case counts are starting to rise again. Last Sunday, there were 279 new COVID-19 cases in Canada. On Thursday, there were 1,445 new COVID-19 cases and 1,519 new COVID-19 cases on Friday.

Both the United States and Canada have about a solid 25 per cent of their respective populations that don’t want to be vaccinated for COVID-19. That reality exists despite concerns about variants of COVID-19, especially the Delta variant, that are more transmissible.

That will all translate to bumps in the sports world in both countries, which could result in craziness of “the wild west.”

Could restrictions and Public Health Orders that were lifted in various areas in both countries return?

U Sports is set to play for the first time since March of 2020.

It feels like many decision makers will be very hesitant to backtrack on reopening, so you can expect sports seasons on all levels will go ahead.

How those seasons will play out on all levels remains to be seen.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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