The Wall Street Journal - 21.03.2020 - 22.03.2020

A16| Saturday/Sunday, March 21 - 22, 2020 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

rest of the world, at that

time,” said Thomas Frieden,

the former head of the Cen-

ters for Disease Control and

Prevention, in a statement

to The Wall Street Journal.

Olympic Games were can-

celed during World War I

and II, he added, “and now

the world is engaged in a

global war against a com-

mon enemy. Let’s postpone

the 2020 Olympics, provid-

ing time for the Olympic

community and the world to

regroup and stage an amaz-

ing and inspiring event that

celebrates excellence and

global solidarity.”

In a statement, USOPC

CEO Sarah Hirshland and

Susanne Lyons, the chair-

woman of the committee’s

board of directors, said they

were making concerns

known to the IOC about the

impact of the pandemic on

training.

They said the USOPC

would be “unfailing advo-

cates of the athletes and

their safety, and the neces-

sity of a fair platform for

the Games.”

Earlier Friday, USOPC of-

ficials held a briefing in

which they deferred to the

IOC on the status of the

Games.

“The decision about the

Games themselves does not

lie directly with us,” said Ly-

ons. She said the organiza-

tion wants to give the IOC

the opportunity to gather

the information and expert

advice it needs to decide if

the Games can go on as

planned. “At this point in

time we do not feel it is nec-

essary for us to insist that

they make a decision.”

Lyons and Hirshland de-

clined to detail possible con-

tingency plans for the

Games or to name a date by

which a decision must be

made.

ONE OF TEAM USA’Smost

powerful sports federations,

USA Swimming, called on

the U.S. Olympic & Paralym-

pic Committee to push for

postponement of the 2020

Tokyo Olympics because of

the coronavirus pandemic,

even as USOPC officials said

they wouldn’t lobby the In-

ternational Olympic Com-

mittee for a delay.

USA Swimming officials

wrote a letter to the USOPC

on Friday urging it to “use

its voice and speak up for

the athletes” by advocating

for a one-year delay of the

Tokyo Games, which are

scheduled to start July 24.

USA Swimming is one of

the most powerful national

sport federations in the

world. Its athletes won 33

medals at Rio 2016—more

than three times the total of

second-place Australia.

The letter, earlier re-

ported by USA Today, came

as pressure to postpone the

Olympics also increased

from public-health officials.

They cite the disruption to

training, qualification and

air travel and the lack of

clarity over whether com-

petitors and staff could be

adequately protected from

infection, even if spectators

are barred.

“It’s becoming clear that

the pandemic will be ongo-

ing in July. We simply don’t

know what the situation will

be in Tokyo, let alone the

The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to start on July 24.

players can still accrue a full year of

service.

Take Mookie Betts, the 27-year-

old superstar outfielder who was re-

cently traded from the Boston Red

Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s

102 days shy of free agency, meaning

he is supposed to hit the open mar-

ket ahead of the 2021 season. If he

has to wait an additional year, he’d

be looking for a new deal head-

ing into his age-29 season

instead of age-28—only a

year difference, but

enough to have an im-

pact on his earnings.

If the worst-case

scenario came to

pass, and there was

no 2020 season at all,

the situation would be-

come even more heated.

MLB would almost cer-

tainly argue that players should

accrue no service time. That would

push free agency and salary arbitra-

tion back for every player until they

are all one year older.

Other sports that happened to be

in season when the virus came to the

U.S. have their own labor issues.

The NBA was about a month away

from the playoffs, with roughly 18

games left in the regular season,

when the league was abruptly sus-

pended last week. NBA commissioner

Adam Silver has left open the possi-

bility the rest of the season will be

canceled, but the league and its play-

ers’ union are holding out hope that

they can resume it at an unknown

date months from now. But if they

Pressure Builds to Delay Olympics

ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA/REUTERS

Weather
Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Anchorage 38 21 sn 36 20 s
Atlanta 74 53 c 63 55 r
Austin 60 55 t 75 63 c
Baltimore 54 34 s 52 40 pc
Boise 59 35 s 61 41 pc
Boston 46 25 s 37 30 s
Burlington 36 16 s 36 24 s
Charlotte 77 48 c 58 46 r
Chicago 36 29 pc 42 33 sn
Cleveland 35 25 pc 46 38 c
Dallas 60 52 pc 71 58 c
Denver 4727pc 5130pc
Detroit 38 22 s 42 31 pc
Honolulu 81 69 c 80 70 pc
Houston 63 63 t 79 70 t
Indianapolis 42 28 s 44 35 pc
Kansas City 48 35 pc 45 33 sh
Las Vegas 65 50 pc 68 52 pc
Little Rock 58 41 pc 55 48 sh
Los Angeles 66 51 pc 66 53 pc
Miami 85 72 s 85 73 pc
Milwaukee 34 28 pc 40 32 pc
Minneapolis 39 30 s 45 34 c
Nashville 54 39 pc 58 50 r
New Orleans 78 70 t 85 71 c
New York City 50 32 s 46 35 s
Oklahoma City 56 44 pc 66 46 c

Omaha 42 31 s 46 32 c

Orlando 89 65 s 89 65 pc

Philadelphia 52 33 s 48 36 s

Phoenix 74 54 s 76 58 pc

Pittsburgh 43 25 pc 51 39 c

Portland, Maine 45 20 s 38 26 s

Portland, Ore. 61 39 pc 64 43 pc

Sacramento 67 44 pc 69 50 sh

St. Louis 46 34 s 44 38 sh

Salt Lake City 55 38 sh 58 40 pc

San Francisco 65 51 pc 64 53 r

Santa Fe 57 30 c 59 34 pc

Seattle 59 39 s 57 43 pc

Sioux Falls 36 26 s 47 32 c

Wash., D.C. 56 37 s 54 43 pc

Amsterdam 48 31 pc 46 30 s

Athens 68 52 s 64 52 c

Baghdad 72 49 sh 64 49 pc

Bangkok 94 79 pc 96 79 pc

Beijing 68 36 s 72 43 s

Berlin 44 28 pc 42 25 s

Brussels 48 32 pc 47 30 s

Buenos Aires 78 66 s 78 67 s

Dubai 88 73 t 88 69 t

Dublin 47 37 c 47 34 pc

Edinburgh 49 30 pc 50 31 pc

Frankfurt 47 30 r 46 27 s

Geneva 63 43 c 54 32 r

Havana 89 63 s 88 63 s

Hong Kong 76 71 c 78 71 pc

Istanbul 57 45 pc 60 47 pc

Jakarta 88 76 t 87 76 t

Jerusalem 49 42 sh 55 42 pc

Johannesburg 79 59 pc 77 57 t

London 51 38 pc 49 34 s

Madrid 56 45 r 58 43 r

Manila 93 78 s 93 78 s

Melbourne 67 53 c 65 52 pc

Mexico City 78 54 pc 81 53 pc

Milan 68 48 c 55 36 c

Moscow 34 21 pc 33 23 s

Mumbai 87 76 pc 90 79 pc

Paris 52 37 c 51 32 pc

Rio de Janeiro 79 74 t 78 71 pc

Riyadh 83 61 pc 73 50 pc

Rome 64 46 c 64 45 c

San Juan 82 73 sh 83 73 sh

Seoul 64 40 sh 61 37 s

Shanghai 79 62 pc 68 51 c

Singapore 90 78 t 89 79 t

Sydney 7364pc 7964pc

Taipei City 85 68 pc 88 70 pc

Tokyo 69 50 s 69 45 c

Toronto 3420pc 3531pc

Vancouver 52 36 pc 52 40 c

Warsaw 4324pc 3723sf

Zurich 52 35 r 45 25 pc

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

s...sunny; pc... partly cloudy; c...cloudy; sh...showers;
t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice
Today Tomorrow

Warm

Cold

Stationary

Showers

Rain

T-storms

Snow

Flurries

Ice

<

0s

10s

20s

30s

40s

50s

60s

70s

80s

90s

100 +

l

AAhh g

Jacksonvillek

L e k

Charlotte

LouL

Pittsburghg

ew Yk

Salt LLake CityLake CityLkk

Tampa

h ill

Memphishi

t

City

P Dll

g

PP d

an

ld

Atl t

ew

San Diego Ph

Los AngeAl

Las

Vega

ttl

i Mpls./St. Paul

.Louis

ChicCh g

hihhington D.C.gton D C

t

Charles

kk rtford

hit

di p

CleveCl l d

l

AA

l

k

Albqq

h

Oklahoma Cityklahoma City

nAA

es

oux Fll

JJk

h

CChy Phhil d l hih lp

aF

CCl dd

Springspg

Pierre

hdd

ih

Tc

Abyy

Topk

C bibb

AAgt

Ft. th

Springfieldifild

bil

T

ttawa

ip

VV Calgary

dt

Honolulu

Anchorage

Jacksonville

Little Rock

Charlotte

Louisville

Pittsburgh

New York

Salt Lake City

Tampa

Nashville

Memphis

Detroit

Kansas

City

El Paso Dallas

Billings

Portland

Miami

San Francisco

Sacramento

Orlando

Atlanta

New Orleans

Houston

San Diego Phoenix

Los Angeles

Las

Vegas

Seattle

Boise

Denver

Mpls./St. Paul

St. Louis

Chicago

Washington D.C.

Boston

Charleston

Milwaukee Hartford

Wichita

Indianapolis

Cleveland

Buffalo

Austin

Helena

Bismarck

Albuquerque

Omaha

Oklahoma City

San Antonio

Des Moines

Sioux Falls

Jackson

Birmingham

Cheyenne Philadelphia

Reno

Santa Fe

Colorado

Springs

Pierre

Richmond

Raleigh

Tucson

Albany

Topeka

Columbia

Augusta

Ft. Worth

Eugene

Springfield

Mobile

Toronto

Ottawa Montreal

Winnipeg

Vancouver Calgary

Edmonton

40s 70s

30s

20s

10s

80s

80s

70s

70s

60s

60s

70s

50s

50s

50s

50s

50s

40s 40s

40s 40s

40s

40s

40s

40s

40s 40s

40s

30s

30s

30s

30s

30s

30s

20s

20s

10s

0s

20s

W

ith American sports

shut down because

of the coronavirus

pandemic, profes-

sional athletes are

asking the same question currently

sweeping through group texts and

employee Slack channels nationwide:

When am I going to get paid?

The answer is a complicated puz-

zle of labor relations, forcing leagues

and their players’ unions to parse

through never-before-considered lan-

guage buried in the depths of their

collective bargaining agreements.

These are unprecedented times, and

until a week ago, the idea of sports

going away completely was unfath-

omable.

For a variety of reasons, Major

League Baseball faces the most com-

plex situation—and the possibility of

an unexpected labor battle before

what was already looking like a con-

tentious CBA negotiation after 2021.

Unlike the NBA and NHL, baseball

has no salary cap, nor is player com-

pensation tied in any way to overall

league revenues. Under virtually ev-

ery previously conceived circum-

stance, MLB contracts are fully guar-

anteed.

Section 11 of baseball’s uniform

player’s contract gives commissioner

Rob Manfred the right to “suspend

the operation” of deals “during any

national emergency during which

Major League Baseball is not played.”

Opening day, which was previously

scheduled for March 26, has been in-

definitely postponed. MLB used the

term “national emergency” in its

statement announcing the initial de-

lay, wording that didn’t go unnoticed

by MLBPA officials.

The league and union are cur-

rently engaged in negotiations about

how to handle a litany of labor-re-

lated issues stemming from the cur-

rent crisis, according to several peo-

ple familiar with the matter.

These people say that one

outcome could be MLB

floating the union a

lump-sum advance to

be distributed

among players on

teams’ 40-man ros-

ters. Once the season

starts, salaries could

be paid on a prorated

basis. (A person familiar

with the matter said MLB

also intends to devise a plan

to advance money to minor-leaguers,

who aren’t represented by a union,

during the hiatus, once a deal is

struck with the MLBPA.)

But salary is the easy part. The

most contentious point of the discus-

sions, according to the people famil-

iar, is the issue of service time—a

strange construct that doesn’t exist

in any other sport. In baseball, play-

ers are bound to their teams until

they accrue six years of service time,

at which point they become a free

agent. The CBA dictates that 172 cal-

endar days on the major-league ros-

ter constitutes one year of service.

The union wants to ensure that in

the event of a shortened season,

Shutdown Impacts Free Agency

MLB and the union are discussing how to handle labor-related issues amid the current crisis

do have to miss time, there is a

“force majeure” clause in their CBA

that covers unforeseen circum-

stances like epidemics, and it stipu-

lates that salaries would be cut by a

small percentage for each game

missed.

In hockey, the financial effects of

the coronavirus outbreak largely de-

pend on whether the playoffs hap-

pen. Approximately 70% of the NHL’s

revenue comes from ticket sales,

with much of that coming from the

six-week playoffs when nearly every

game sells out.

According to the current collective

bargaining agreement, owners and

players evenly split all “hockey-re-

lated revenue,” and any imbalance

accrued by the players is put into es-

crow. The current rate of escrow is

about 14%, a percentage that could

dramatically increase if the playoffs

were to be canceled.

In both basketball and hockey, the

ramifications of all this will likely ex-

tend far beyond just this year. The

NBA and NHL salary caps are deter-

mined based on revenues from the

previous year.

NHL Players’ Association execu-

tive director Don Fehr said discus-

sions about how the league might

cope with a lower salary cap are not

taking priority in his daily discus-

sions with NHL commissioner Gary

Bettman.

“This isn’t a labor relations prob-

lem,” Fehr said. “This is a pandemic

problem.”

—Ben Cohen

contributed to this article.

BYJAREDDIAMOND ANDLAINEHIGGINS

RICK SCUTERI/REUTERS, ELISE AMENDOLA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

BYLOUISERADNOFSKY

ANDRACHELBACHMAN

SPORTS

TOM BRADY IS OFFICIALLY
the quarterback of the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers. And after ev-
eryone moves on from ponder-
ing what he might look like in
their creamsicle throwback uni-
forms, there’s one question that
will define this move: Can Brady
take this franchise to the Super
Bowl?
It’s bizarre for any NFL fan to
think about Brady anywhere but
the New England Patriots. He
won six Super Bowls there and
became as much part of the re-
gion’s history as angrily dump-
ing tea in a harbor. And now
one of the NFL’s least successful
franchises in recent history is
hoping he has just a little more
in the tank to turn them around.
In Brady, Tampa Bay found a
short-term solution: He will be
43 by the start of next season,
and there’s reason to believe
Brady’s performance has cra-
tered. His 6.6 yards per pass at-
tempt in 2019 were 27th out of
32 qualified quarterbacks. His
numbers have dropped for three
consecutive years, and the one
player who has boasted about
outracing time may finally be
losing that right.
“If there is one thing I have
learned about football, it’s that
nobody cares what you did last
year or the year before that,”
Brady wrote on Instagram.
But in Tampa Bay, Brady will
have arguably the best wide re-
ceiver duo in the entire NFL—
Chris Godwin and Mike Evans—
to throw to and a tight end in
O.J. Howard, who poses
matchup nightmares for de-
fenses.
This is precisely what Brady
lacked during his final year in
New England when his numbers
sagged. Tampa Bay is also led
by an offensive-minded coach,
Bruce Arians and an up-and-
coming offensive coordinator,
Byron Leftwich, who’s a former
NFL quarterback. It’s the type of
place any quarterback would
dream of going. There’s an elite
defense already in place. There
are premier offensive weapons.
The biggest question isn’t
about Tampa Bay. It’s how much
Brady has left.

BYANDREWBEATON

Tom Brady

Is Officially

On the Bucs

Mookie Betts is 102 days

shy of free agency, but

what happens if there is a

shortened season?

172

Number of calendar

days on a major-league

roster for a player

to earn one year of

service time