The wheels appear to be coming off the Major League Baseball season. The NBA basketball may have built a tight enough bubble, but at great cost. And I'll bet a fair amount that NFL and college football will be disasters if they take place. Some sports and associated logistics may too difficult to handle given the poorly controlled pandemic situation in the US. There is some truth in what Sean Doolittle said: "Sports are like the reward of a functioning society."
There are examples of carefully executed seasons even in the US. Before getting an example there's a more interesting question: Why do people care about sports? I'm not terribly coordinated but am a fan of and advisor to one of the Olympic sports. The science of sport is deep and fascinating. I've dabbled a little and have found it's a way to connect dots and gain insight in areas I hadn't considered. Unexpectedly it became a gateway to learning about neurology and metabolism and a good way to teach introductory physics. And that's just the beginning. Sport is one of those interesting lenses for looking at the world. Not to mention sports are a form of rich story-telling that take can even create a community identity.
BBC's The Why Factor had an episode asking "why people care about games". (23 minutes audio) It touches on some psychology and cognitive neurology among other things.
As I write the last day of the AVP beach volleyball season is about to begin in Long Beach, California. The athletes saw the international and American schedules evaporate along with the Olympics. The center of gravity for North Americans is Southern California - specially the South Bay region of Los Angeles. The AVP decided they could pull together a three tournament schedule spread over three weeks and finally managed to find a venue - the parking lot of the Long Beach Convention Center - and a few sponsors. Amazon PrimeVideo handles the video. It was an intense effort - a bit of the story appeared here before the tournaments began.
Some of the teams are a bit rusty, but the intensity of play is very high. Beach volleyball is not a wealthy sport - only a handful make enough to do as their only job and this was the only money available. More importantly this is the only serious competition available. There is a lot of covid testing with one and two day turn-around times. A positive and you and your partner are out for the season. The players were told to not use indoor gyms for training. The players quarantined before hand and only a limited number of media, officials and players are allowed on site. They're keeping things clean, but they recognize airborne transmission is probably more important so everyone but the players is masked and isolated. Of course no spectators are allowed.
The game play has been excellent. Rather than fake crowd noise the AVP and Amazon decided enhance the fan's experience with the court's sound field. Twenty microphones are scattered around the main court and more installed in the player's time-out corners. It worked brilliantly but after the first tournament PrimeVideo had to run a content warning click-through to the tournaments. It seems some of the players have foul mouths when they're excited.
The AVP consulted with a infectious disease experts from local universities. The plans for what to do if something goes wrong are much more detailed than the already complex operational plans. It make me wonder what kinds of plans schools and universities have for when something goes wrong.
PrimeVideo streams and archives the tournaments here if you're interested.
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