Nippon Professional Baseball brought representatives from all 12 teams together on the 9th in Tokyo, and have agreed to delay the start of the 2020 regular season, which was scheduled to start on March 20. When asked about when the season might start, league commissioner Atsushi Saitoh said, “We aim to be playing by no later than sometime in April.”
The baseball clubs, in conjunction with representatives from Japan’s professional soccer league (J-League), were told by health experts that it would be best if the start of the NPB season were delayed beyond March 20, and that J-League not resume play on March 18 as originally scheduled. Saitoh said, “At present, it is unavoidable to delay the start of the season,” adhering to the recommendation of experts. J-League Chairman Mitsuru Murai has also said that they would not resume play on the 18th, and will relay the message to all clubs today.
The experts apparently made their decision based on three factors: (1) Fan safety; (2) Team and player safety; and (3) Protecting sports culture. As the coronavirus continues to spread and shows no signs of dissipating, there can is no possible way to prepare stadiums to protect fans from the spreading of disease, not to mention the teams, players, staff and others.
Professor Mitsuo Kaku of Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University said this about teams keeping themselves healthy and stadiums safe: “It’s going to take far more than one week to be adequately prepared. More procedures need to be in place for crisis management, and I think the season needs to be delayed.” On top of that, even once the stadiums are prepared for preventing the spread of disease, “They need to be prepared to start the season without spectators present, even with the delay.”
NPB has already been playing out the duration of its preseason games in empty stadiums.
Japan High School Baseball Federation chairman Yoshimasa Ogura attended the meeting on the 9th between NPB, J-League and health experts concerning preventive measures against the coronavirus as an observer. When asked what would become of the 92nd spring high school baseball tournament at Koshien, scheduled to start on the 19th, he said, “We will reach our own decision as a federation.”
The federation is currently making preparations to play the tournament without spectators present, but will also hold an emergency meeting on the 11th at which they hope to decide whether or not the tournament will be played at all. Ogura said, “I will take the experts’ opinions back with me and start to prepare for the meeting on the 11th.” Also, concerning some of the local spring tournaments, such as ones in Shikoku, being canceled and affecting the big spring tournament, he said, “We will make a decision on the 11th after gathering all the information available to us.”
Update (Source: Nikkan) – Tournament sponsors/host Mainichi Newspaper reached the difficult decision on Wednesday to cancel this year’s tournament. With cases of the coronavirus still on the rise (including in host prefecture Hyogo), plus Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s orders to cancel all major events for the next ten days, Mainichi chairman Masahiro Maruyama announced the decision at a press conference held in Osaka.