Professional sports teams in the state of New York will be allowed to resume training as of this Sunday, governor Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference.
“Starting today, all the New York professional sports leagues will be able to begin training camps,” Cuomo said. “I believe that sports that can come back without having people in the stadium, without having people in the arena — do it. Do it. Work out the economics, if you can.
“We want you up, we want people to be able to watch sports, to the extent people are still staying home. It gives people something to do. It’s a return to normalcy. So, we are working and encouraging all sports teams to start their training camps as soon as possible, and we’ll work with them to make sure that can happen.”
New York is home to professional teams across a number of different leagues, with the NHL’s Rangers, Islanders and Buffalo Sabres, NWHL’s Buffalo Beauts, NBA’s Knicks and Nets, WNBA’s Liberty, MLB’s Yankees and Mets, NFL’s Buffalo Bills, and MLS’s New York City FC all operating out of the state.
The NHL, NBA and MLB are currently discussing different scenarios through which they could potentially restart or begin their respective seasons, with no official decisions yet announced in any of the leagues. The NHL and NHLPA continue to negotiate regarding a 24-team playoff, though final details on the format’s specifics have yet to be agreed upon.
New York State has seen a total of 361,515 positive cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began, with 1,589 new positives coming Sunday. The state has seen 23,391 fatalities as a result of the novel coronavirus to date.
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