4:10pm: Toronto’s ban focuses on city-led events, mayor John Tory clarified in a public statement. While the ban does not appear to explicitly rule out professional sporting events, mayor Tory’s press release states:
The City’s decision provides clear direction to event organizers to enable them to make sound decisions in support of public health efforts and their business needs, access insurance, support impacted employees and manage sponsors. The City urges event organizers to follow Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health’s recommendations of physical distancing as a way to minimize COVID-19 transmission in the community when reviewing their event plans for the upcoming months and make prudent decisions about their cancellations. Physical distancing means limiting the number of people a person comes into close contact with, including keeping two metres (six feet) apart from others, avoiding mass gatherings and avoiding crowds.
Asked for additional clarity, mayor Tory’s office confirmed that sporting events are not specifically barred under the ban (Twitter link via TSN’s Bryan Hayes). That seems something of a technicality at this point, however. Given the municipal limitations set forth by mayor Tory’s office and a recent provincial emergency order prohibiting organized events of more than five people, it’s extraordinary difficult to envision a scenario in which a stadium whose capacity sits north of 53,000 is hosting baseball games.
3:44pm: The City of Toronto has banned public events until at least June 30, tweets Tom Harrington of CBC News Radio. While it’s long been apparent that Major League Baseball’s shutdown will extend beyond the current May 10 date, the news out of Toronto provides further evidence that if the league determines that play can indeed resume, there will be notable challenges and obstacles to staging MLB games.
The ban on public events comes against the backdrop of increased speculation about the possibility of games being played in empty parks. Should the league attempt to resume play prior to the end of June, it’s now clear that the Blue Jays will either need to take that measure or explore a neutral site at which to host their home games. It’d be a surprise if they’re the only club that finds itself exploring such alternatives.
The Toronto Sun’s Rob Longley provides a bit of context on what the ban means for the Jays (Twitter link); from Opening Day through June 30, the Rogers Centre was scheduled to host 54 percent of the Blue Jays’ home contests in 2020. We already knew that a notable chunk of those games wouldn’t take place as scheduled, of course, and it’s possible that if the conclusion of the regular season is indeed pushed back into late October that the Jays could recoup some home games on a newly constructed schedule. A late start to the season would surely require some agile adjustments to the schedules of all 30 clubs.
Of course, there’s also no guarantee that Toronto’s events ban will only run through June 30. As we’ve seen with stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders throughout the United States, the end dates on these public health measures are regularly extended and are hardly set in stone.
So ban the Jay’s for a year if we get it back before then
Lol right…
Reality check needed.
The SkyDome/Rogers Center will open when MLB says to open. John Tory is no match vs. MLB money. It would be funny though to see the Buffalo Blue Jays get comfy at Pilot Field (or Sahlen Field, or whatever they call it now.) A resurrected St. Catherine’s Blue Jays in the form of the big leagues would be interesting too. It’s just never going to happen.
If MLB tries to play before July they are insane. This virus, with idiots opening churches still, has a long way to go still in the USA. No way any baseball is happening down there until July or August.
No way eh
Let’s take it a month at a time and see what happens. No reason to ban everything 3 months out.
Totally agree. They might try these fan less games in June. But my guess is an 82 game schedule that starts after the original all-star break.
So play in Montreal… next….
They’d draw more fans in St Catherines or Hamilton than Montreal.
Small turnout, less chance of infection!
Strong point Dodger Dog.
its not like the team is becoming the Montreal Jays for good. it would be just for x number of months most likely. Actually this may do well for baseball in Canada. not far enough to repell the Toronto faithful while also allowing people in the Montreal area another taste of baseball.
Montreal is in worse shape than Toronto so I’m not sure why you’re even taking that idea serious, Darkside.
Montreal is dangerously close to calling in the army for help sports guy. So may need to re think that solution
Way more cases in Quebec than Ontario.
CBC ran like 4 stories on how Quebec is doing so a better job at containment then Ontario.
More cases, less people in population. Not doing a better job. The numbers prove it.
Take the Rays approach, half of the season in Florida and half the season in Canada
Or just the Rays attendance approach…
A question that’s been on my mind regarding the Jays. What happens if border crossings are still banned for non essential travel by either country?
Good point. Canada must keep its border closed.
You should simply take this post down. Toronto today banned all events for which a City permit is required. Entirely unclear if that covers scheduled sporting events like the Blue Jays.
The world is in a pandemic. Municipal actions are not going to be why there is no baseball, or any activity at all for that matter
The first of many. Toronto isn’t even hit that hard yet. New York and Seattle won’t be ready for many months.
New York would be ready now if not for this insanity. Less than 1% of New Yorkers are infected and most people here are angry at the quarantine. As a recent New York Times article written by a Yale professor said, this is making things worse.
nytimes.com/2020/03/20/opinion/coronavirus-pandemi…
I’m a frequent NYT reader but I disagree strongly with his opinions. First, that article is eleven days old where he cites that only 200 in the U.S. have died due to Covid-19. That number has since skyrocketed to over 3800+. He’s also entirely ignoring the fact we still don’t have enough test kits. The “vulnerable” is no longer just limited to people over 60. Lastly, he’s advocating herd immunity which will kill a hell of a lot more people in the long run. Get off your high horse, doctor!
Lifelong New Yorker here. The NYT article is garbage, but thetruth is right. We were ready for life to resume a week ago, and less than 1% of our population has the virus. The logic is that 100k New Yorkers could die “by the time this is over”, which could very well be 18 months from now when there’s a vaccine.
We’re already fed up and I’ve always put the timeline at one month before people start rioting here. I was out today for fresh air and saw a bunch of kids, who are home from school, biking through the streets of Manhattan in large groups. Crime is up because kids are running the streets unsupervised, and once it gets warm people are just going to completely ignore the “stay home” nonsense and social distancing.
I want this to be over because my business and my livelihood depend on events resuming, but at some point in the next 2-3 weeks, Cuomo is going to have a decision to make: lift the restrictions and reopen businesses or risk lives due to violence. We don’t have much more patience in us.
Both you and TheTruth are morons who do not understand exponential growth. Nor do you understand that confirmed cases do not equal the number of actual cases. People can be asymptotic for up to five days and testing is still limited.
There’s 50,000 in NYC *that you know of*. There’s probably more like 250,000. If you had resumed life a week ago, there would probably be 1 million.
Further, 100,000 people in 18 months is an extraordinary number of deaths. It’s 33x the number of people that died on 9/11. It’s almost as many Americans that died in WWI. And thats the estimate WITH the restrictions in place. If you open things up, the number of deaths will be way more than 100,000.
You morons should start listening to the actual medical experts and stop trivializing people’s lives.
Just play with no fans
I mean, that’s what they do in Florida…
alright, Montreal it is.
please dont moderate that one out. no negative message just an opinion reinforced by daily life not being interrupted terribly
At best, MLB returns mid-July, though even that date is optimistic.
Nope. ST will start in May. Too much money is being lost and this quarantine is to give cities time to get ready to treat patients not to stop the disease. 81% of infected have no symptoms or very mild ones and only 1-3% are at risk of death. Look at actual CDC statistics and ignore the media hype.
Are people still going to be this worried about money if this virus were to start turning people into zombies?
“only” 1%. 3 million tops, no sweat
Yep. Only 3-10 million people who will likely need one of our 980,000 or so hospital beds, most of which are already full.
Not a big deal at all.
Screen shot
Province of Ontario is about to break the 2,000 people mark on Covid-19 cases. City of Toronto taking precautions. That’s about it for now.
Extremely funny suggesting Montreal as an alternative. Quebec is about to break 3500 cases. They won’t be holding baseball games before Toronto even if the city of Montreal cared about baseball.
Life and baseball will continue when it will continue and not until then…..so relax.
Play all games on Antarctica. Problem solved.
Send all the people who don’t think this is serious to Antarctica. There. Problem solved.
So most of us then? It’s serious as in there’s mass hysteria over a largely non-fatal disease.
According to the CDC, less than 1% of Americans are infected, less than 3% are in actual risk of dying. 81% of infected never even have any serious symptoms.
nytimes.com/2020/03/20/opinion/coronavirus-pandemi…
Yeah, I’ll take most of you
Copy, paste, repeat.
Luckily while you’re doing that you’re probably at home instead of spreading the virus around.
I see you have a flag as your avatar. Patriotic? How would you feel about having a 9/11 every day for weeks on end? Would you still say it’s not a big deal and we need to go about our business? We’re going to be there in just a few more days.
The only reason we can even say things like “only” so many are infected or dead is BECAUSE OF THE QUARANTINES. We’ll have – literally–millions dead if we just say screw it and go back to normal. More than the dead in all of Americas wars combined. Is that worth it?
TD Park in Omaha or the Alamodome in San Antonio will work
I was thinking might as well do Vegas but at least Montreal is close enough for home game revenue.
The United States is in much worse shape than Canada. Suggesting the Jays play there is like telling a healthy person to take up smoking.
Orlando? OKC?
At least our country has masks…
Enjoy the virus
Thanks a lot soon Cali and NY will follow
This is what a real country with real leadership does.
Too bad I’m officially stuck in the “greatest country on Earth” for a while.
How about some games in Buffalo? Just down the road and the ball park there is beautiful.
The entire state of NY is in bad shape with the pandemic, and it may still get far worse. The governor and county executive would never allow it to happen.
most of the problem is in NYC though
We’re also two weeks ahead of most of the rest of the country and have a much denser population, and are also testing 3x more than any other state. We’ll be past the worst of this by May and ready to roll full-bore by June.
Other states are your problem. Not NY or NYC.
Erie County has twice the cases per million than Toronto.
Not surprisingly, Canada has been far more progressive trying to get the spread under some control. Even they underestimated the gravity of the situation early on, but not to the level the U.S. did. The end of June seems like an aggressive timeline that will eventually get extended. Thought it was very odd when the U.S. was considering lining the Canadian border with troops. Certain that the U.S. is one of the last places Canadians want to be.
Lol I think most Americans don’t even want to go on vacation to Canada, living there is like a prison sentence.
I feel I’ve gotten significantly dumber after reading your comment
Isn’t that thetruth
have you seen his comments. the guy is obviously a moron.
The US has 10x the population with much more travel and visitors from other countries. This has more to do with that and not being “progressive” in Canada. Timeless would suggest the US was more proactive than Canada for various reasons. Plus certain US Governors dropped the ball and ignored the warnings. That’s a topic for a political thread so we can stop now and focus on baseball.
“Sound decision” to me means unless you are a Pastor in Florida or a University President in Virginia, there will not be any sporting events.
Money talks. Sports will be back soon.
You’re right money talks. Do you realize the money from sports is a drop in the bucket compared to the money being lost due to the quarantine? The longer the quarantine lasts the more money lost.
You know how when an earthquake happens at sea it doesn’t really effect much until the tsunami reaches land. Its gonna be the same with the economy. They gonna bailout again to keep the island afloat, but for how long? This is the largest of all of them, more money in circulation means your money is worth less. What happens when the government isn’t able to pay back the central bank through direct taxation of the people because the globe stopped due to covid 19. Major economic collapse, money talks so loud its gonna ruin everything. Get that guy down and somebody confiscate his megaphone and stop that spray painter from writing on my darn wall
At this point, I will be quite surprised if there is a season at all.
This is a poor judge of character… Banned from MLB.
from Opening Day through June 30, the Rogers Centre was scheduled to host 54 percent of the Blue Jays’ home contests in 2020
Where were the Jays going to play the other 46% of their home games? I kid
Go Jays Go
Reading these comments reminds me of why I am proud to be Canadian. The concept of playing sports before July or August is insane. The 100,000 minimum figure for the dead in the USA is probably not even half of the final total if attitudes are this poor down there. I really hope I’m wrong but fear I’m an optimist.
There is nothing optimistic from your comment.
The only saving grace in Canada is less, much less travel has been happening in our country in Feb/March than in the US. People are trying to get OUT of our country and find warm weather in the winter and during spring break. Or visit big cities like New York City and Chicago. Less people coming to Canada, and THAT is what’s helped us. Our attitude is every bit on the level as the US.
I think a lot of things have to go right before we see pro sports again. First is we don’t want to see a second or third wave caused by large gatherings.. Second is the US, which is already seeing twice the cases/million than Canada, in spite of starting at roughly the same time. Third, of course, is the border, which will remain closed as long as there is any chance of the disease being imported or exported.
Having The Jays play at a neutral site in the US would be unrealistic, given that Canada will likely have Covid- 19 under control before the US does. The Jays could be ready to go long before any US team.
There will be no major sports played at all this year…,,that looks what is on the horizon…Until there is major treatments and a vaccine…no league will allow games to be played,,,,Im hoping for the nfl to start in January….this virus is a nightmare…