A lot can happen in a year, clearly
By Mo Hussain, Sports Reporter
The 2021 Tokyo Olympics seem like too much of a logistical nightmare to occur.
Whether it was delaying games by a couple of months, having to play with no fans present, or in some cases having to be isolated from their families for a couple months to play, the sports world had to learn to adapt in 2020.
Seeing how so much had to be changed in such a short period of time, this does (to some extent) open our minds to the possibilities of what could happen in 2021. Some predictions may be far fetched, others may be realistic, but considering how wild 2020 was, anything might happen in the sports universe.
MORE FANS WILL BE BACK IN ARENAS
This prediction already came true as some teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL are permitting their venues to allow in approximately 10 to 30 percent of their capacities. However, I predict that whether it is more teams letting fans in or the current teams allowing more fans, these restrictions will loosen at some point due to the release of the COVID vaccine. As more of them start to roll out, teams may start to feel more comfortable with letting fans attend.
2021 TOKYO OLYMPICS WILL NOT HAPPEN
This prediction may seem contradictory to the other one, and I hope this may be wrong, but the 2021 Tokyo Olympics seem like too much of a logistical nightmare to occur. It is one thing to have to coordinate around COVID restrictions when working for a league that only has participants in one continent playing one sport.
It is a completely different task to have to coordinate around COVID restrictions with participants coming from all over the world, and with there being almost fifty different sports. Also keep in mind that the Winter Olympics are coming up in early 2022, and they will also have to have their sights set on that.
The Olympics are still supposed to be set to get going on July 23, but actually being able to pull it off will be quite the feat.
SPORTS WILL BE VALUED MORE BY THE END OF THIS COVID NIGHTMARE
Assuming this COVID disaster will be out of the picture by 2021, many will look at the sports world with a lot more gratitude. During every massive crisis before this pandemic, the sports world usually was not affected to the point where seasons were shut down. The world has been in chaos in the past, yet sports fans would usually still have something to escape to for a moment.
When the pandemic first hit in the beginning of this year, it was the first time that many of us had that kind of escapism pulled from under us while the world was overturned. Many of us had to go about our day-to-day lives without our valued outlet for stress.
However, during all the madness, many professional leagues still found a way to operate at some point. Once this pandemic dwindles down and people can freely get together and watch their favourite events together, there will be a lot more enthusiasm for sports—something some of us might have underappreciated.
