What sport could safely return to TV
 

If social distancing has to continue for the foreseeable future, but the government gave the OK for some sport to continue, which sports would be the safest to resume? I'm thinking along the lines of sport that can be played at distance with low risk of injury and hospitalization. Keeping participants safe with little chance of strain on the NHS. Boxing is a definite no go.

I'm thinking darts, tennis, golf, snooker and fish-o-mania.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Looking at certain countries abroad apart from the ones you mentioned the Bundesliga could be one of the first leagues to come back and if so it will be on BT Sport , Horse racing could be starting in France on the 11th of May and that could be closely followed by UK racing just afterwards if we go by the bookies where the odds on racing restarting has shorten considerably in the last few days to 5/2 on..

Rugby not a chance , cricket not till the 1st of July at the earliest.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

I'm amazed by the fact they haven't come up with a way to make darts viable for television with some CGI crowd graphics. Often the background noise is just a bunch of louts not watching the game anyway.

"Feed the STAAAAAAANNNDSSS"; "please don't take me home" etc etc.

You could have two players playing on different boards and a decent production team could make it seamless.

Boxing a no go in this country - requirement for ambulance staff and ICU bed availability are a requirements for approval by the British Boxing Board of Control. That said it's possible on a worldwide level that promoters could get together for an attractive pay per view programme, held in isolated places, and do something. That said the politics behind boxing makes making fights hard enough in normal times!

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Surfing, base jumping, pole vault, shot putt, trampolining, archery, air racing, unicycling, dressage, keepy-uppy, parkour, diving, ferret-legging

You just need a bit of imagination.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

darts - they are already doing exactly this and streaming the 'matches', in fact 1 player had a 9 dart 501 the other day (lowest possible number of darts for those that don't know)

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

There has been darts but its only been in the form of streaming it from the PDC website.

https://dartsnews.com/schedule-pdc-h...ur-night-nine/

https://www.pdc.tv/

As for the noisy louts most real dart fans could do without that rabble anyway.:)

---------- Post added at 05:12 ---------- Previous post was at 05:09 ----------

Personally l cannot see Boxing returning anytime soon certainly not in this country but there are many more far flung places of the world where they would hold it.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Competitive Egyptian PT. I'm doing for around 8 hours a night. First one to get up loses.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

the easiest way to complete the EPL season is get everyone in the EPL tested. Move the squad to a hotel and keep them isolated there for 4 weeks. play 2 games a day on broadcast and subscription tv. great for morale. get the season completed by June in time for the UCL to restart.

Downside is the squad will need to be away from home for 4 weeks. A lot of people are going through that worldwide. The sooner it gets finished the sooner everyone can go off for summer break and come back maybe september with reduced international football and cancel the league cup for a year or something

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

In italy Serie A sides will be allowed to return to individual training on 4 May and team training on 18 May after the Italian PM announced the first steps in lifting the country's coronavirus lockdown.

If there is live football and that is a big if it is more likely it could be in Germany and Italy before us.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52436317

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

You are going to need at least around 200 people present per game, from coaches, officials, cameramen, ballboys, and so on. Germany have said they will need around 300 people. It isn't just the 11 players plus subs that are needed. It only takes one person among those to contract the virus, and all are back in confinement again. We don't currently have a successful antibody test, which means we don't know accurately who is a carrier, as opposed to the test of who is currently suffering.

Not saying it is not possible, but there are a large number of things that could go wrong, and cancel any resumption.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Would love for ArcheryGB to OK archery, miss shooting but as we use school field in summer and army base hall in winter even if cleared using venue may be harder.
(The hall I understand but a field where we have our own storage isn't much risk, no staff are present as we have access ourselves.)

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Vince, can you please tell me what you are drinking/smoking....;):D

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Personally, I think Vince has summed up the situation fairly well. Top level sport, behind closed doors, will be the first to resume - not least because of the money involved, they can well afford to get everyone involved tested regularly.

It is lower level professional sport and recreational sport that will not happen anytime soon.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

He's not very aspirational with two games per day! I could easily see it being 3 or even 4 at weekends. Teams playing every third/fourth day until season done.

As pointed out there's a risk if just one of the "inner circle" gets infected so I doubt they would want to take any longer than they need to.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Boxing is back in Nicaragua. Look at the photos in this article from the BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/52432485

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Can you imagine in a football match every player wearing a face mask Chad?.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

It really would be difficult to imagine players wearing masks. I'm shocked boxing is happening.

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Yeag l was pretty shocked by those pictures as it must reduce the efficiency of both boxers in a fight.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Found the video on YouTube

https://youtu.be/_M8S1DSK_vA

The fighters are the only one's in the arena without a mask when the fight starts. Weird atmosphere too

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Strange how they wore the mask for everything else but not the fight as there would be even closer contact in a ring.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

two games in the league i mean i.e. two different fixtures...not the same team playing twice a day. apologies! I hadnt thought about other staff. the coaching staff would be with the squad in the hotel. the police are already still working in difficult circumstances so i doubt it'd be much different? they probably have less of a risk of infection in an empty stadium than they do walking the streets etc.

Don't the teams in the premier league have to have team doctors etc so unless a huge injury wouldnt need NHS assistance? Couldnt they jib the ball boys off and just get the players to grab the ball... i can't think of who else they would need? Admittedly to the other question i had drank a few glasses of wine so good spot whoever that was

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Given they could kill each other anyway, it's only a slight additional risk.

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Hmm no Mr K as the boxing referee will stop the fight when he believes its gone on long enough.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

I think one of my local non league teams could safely resume footy. Av. attendance is about 50, plenty of space. :)

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Has not the non league season been declared null and void though.

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Yes shame, as I said they had more chance to socially distance. With no Premiership/EFL the TV rights could have been hot property and bought much needed income !

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Not sure anyone would pay money to watch low level football - even if Professional football is not on

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

There was talk at one stage, of Premiership Rugby doing this by using the Twickenham Marriot as quarantine.

It would tick a few boxes in terms of broadcast-TV, isolation and match completion.

Practicalities, realities and the domestic/international rugby calendar, that's a whole other story.

Re: What sport could safely return to TV
 

Was watching some of the AFL matches they played before suspending things. A few rule changes and no spectators. It's really odd without the crowd, they do add so much to the event