Trump gives hope to the NFL - good news for the US Open too?
US President Donald Trump indicated in a conference call with representatives of the major US sports a return to live sport later this summer.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Apr 06, 2020, 09:18 am
First of all: Andrea Gaudenzi, Chairman of the ATP, or Steve Simon, Head of the WTA, were not invited to the conference call with US President Donald Trump last weekend. Tennis as such will nonetheless become the published chunk of conversation between Trump and the major representatives of the major leagues NFL (football), MLB (baseball), NBA (basketball) and NHL (ice hockey), as well as those responsible for college sports and major league soccer have followed closely. Because Trump's central message was: There should still be professional sport this year. In front of spectators.
The driving force here will probably be the National Football League. Most of the money is earned there, not just on the pitch. The NFL traditionally starts its season in early September, exactly when the US Open in New York City is entering its final phase. And since the football players do not want to do a cold start, the so-called "pre season" would have to start a few weeks earlier, at least 14 days. That would roughly correspond to the start date of the qualification tournament for the US Open.
Few international players in the NFL
At the moment, however, this scenario requires a lot of imagination. The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is quoted in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Monday as follows: "I don't want to question anyone - but I don't see how this should be possible in our state at the moment." And the situation in New York City is even more difficult compared to that in California. Most recently, buildings in the National Tennis Center were made available as temporary medical wards.
And in terms of tennis, it would of course also be considered that the participants (and spectators) come to the USA from many different countries. It's completely different in the NFL. There, the workforce is almost exclusively recruited from local players. In the NHL and the NBA, on the other hand, the proportion of European players should not be underestimated, in the MLB there are numerous Latin American specialists at the start. Most of whom have left the United States to help them deal with the crisis in their home countries.