The most valuable player for the Utah Jazz is suspended as a result of catastrophic injury
Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday night, prompting the NBA to postpone all games till further notice. The test result was released just before the Oklahoma City Thunder and Jazz matchup at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The match was called off.
In a statement, the NBA stated that “game play is suspended following the conclusion of tonight’s schedule of games until further notice.” “The NBA will use this break to decide how to proceed with the coronavirus pandemic going forward.”
For the league, which was mostly anticipated to proceed with games in empty arenas beginning Thursday, it is a startling turn of events. The Golden State Warriors had previously declared that they will play the Brooklyn Nets in front of an empty Chase Center in San Francisco.
If the majority of the remaining 2019–20 regular season games, if not all of them, are never played, the NBA will suffer a severe financial loss. The playoffs are next month, and most teams still have 16 or 17 games left on their schedule.
With the exception of the playoffs, clubs made almost $2.5 billion from their arenas in revenue from parking, suites, tickets, and concessions last season. $500 million would be lost if one-fifth of the season were to be eliminated. When you account for make-goods on sponsorship packages and TV rights agreements, the cost might be close to $1 billion. Since playoff tickets sell out quickly and the NBA’s $24 billion TV deal is largely dependent on the postseason’s higher viewership and ad rates, postponing the playoffs would increase the loss.
Rick Welts, the president of the Warriors, estimated that Golden State would lose “tens of millions” of revenue if the team decided to play without fans.
