The NBA wants to return in December. The NHL is aiming at games resuming in January. MLB spring training may begin in February, like normal.
Those professional sports leagues almost certainly won’t be in bubbles if and when any or all of that happens.
However, many of the lessons learned from being in some form of a bubble environment – which allowed the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball to each crown a champion after finding a way to finish their seasons in most unusual circumstances this year – could apply to whatever the new definition of normal is for basketball, hockey, baseball and other sports as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
A new set of rules are coming in just about every sport, almost all with enhanced health and safety in mind. If they work, games could return to arenas and stadiums with some fans in attendance sometime soon. Perhaps more importantly, they could also provide some common sense solutions to virus challenges in the real world.
“The testing isn’t what made it successful; the testing sort of showed that it was successful,” said NBA senior vice president David Weiss, who helped oversee all the health and safety efforts for the league at the Walt Disney World bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. “But the thing that made it successful in the first place was the adherence to all those protocols that most people can follow most of the time in their lives.”