COLUMBUS – The NHL and Major League Soccer are suspending play and the Big Ten Conference is canceling spring sports due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Hockey League is suspending its season beginning with Thursday’s games, Commissioner Gary Bettmann announced. The league is halting play with 189 games left in the regular season, sparking uncertainty about how many more, if any, could be played before the playoffs.
The Blue Jackets were scheduled to host the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night Nationwide Arena but spectators would not have been allowed.
MLS officials say the league will suspend play for 30 days while assessing the impact of the virus with its medical task force and public health officials.
The health and well-being of our supporters, players and staff is of the utmost importance to Crew SC and we appreciate the work of health and government officials in the context of these unprecedented circumstances. We want to thank all supporters for their understanding. -Columbus Crew SC statement
They are among the latest sports organizations to cancel or suspend operations in the face of the outbreak.
Major League Baseball is delaying opening day by at least two weeks and has suspended the spring training schedule.
Within minutes of each other, Big Ten, the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference all announced that the remainder of their tournaments would not be played.
The NCAA has canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments because of the spread of coronavirus.
The move puts an abrupt end to the season less than a month before champions were to be crowned and comes a day after the NCAA announced the games that were scheduled to start next week would go on but played in mostly empty arenas.
Following the NCAA’s lead on Wednesday, most college conferences announced that their basketball tournaments would be conducted with limited fan access. However, by Thursday, after the NBA suspended its season Wednesday night, several Division I conferences decided not to play at all.
Later, the Big Ten announced that it was canceling all competitions through the end of the academic year, including spring sports that compete beyond the academic year, and participation in all NCAA tournaments and competitions.
Ohio State has cancelled its annual intrasquad football scrimmage, scheduled for April 11, and decided that attendance at all athletic events for the remainder of the academic year would be be closed to the public.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced Thursday that the girls state basketball tournament, the boys regional and state basketball tournaments, the state wrestling tournament and the state ice hockey tournament are postponed due to the growing concern over COVID-19.