As the coronavirus postpones just about every sport around us, it’s important to remember that it’s affecting many people in their jobs. If you’re lucky, you’re working remotely and despite a massive change, can still do your job. If you’re not, you may have been let go or your duties (and pay) have been drastically reduced as a result.
Construction workers obviously can’t work from home but with many things shutting down to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, there may be fewer construction projects being worked on for the foreseeable future.
How this impacts the sports world is that two new NFL stadiums are supposed to be ready by the start of the 2020 season and potential delays may keep that from happening.
As Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio points out, if the federal government or California and/or Nevada state governments follow the restrictions Italy and Spain have implemented, work at the new SoFi Stadium in LA and Allegiant Stadium in Vegas will probably be stopped.
It’s a simple proposition. If citizens are prohibited from leaving home only to go to the store, the pharmacy, or to get gasoline, they won’t be allowed to leave home for work. And of all the jobs that now can be done at home, working on a stadium cannot be.
Even if construction workers are able to work, they may not be able to for other things beyond their control. For instance, if they need supplies from a company to help build the stadium and they shut down either by choice or necessity, construction may be forced to stop. You can’t build something if you don’t have what you need.
Obviously, if worse comes to worse, some sort of contingency plan will happen in case these stadiums aren’t completed in time. Whether that means going back to their previous stadiums or to another site, that’s probably going to be dealt with at a later time. But it’s a situation where even though NFL games may not be postponed, the seriousness of what’s taking place is impacting everything.
[Pro Football Talk/Photo: Erik Verduzco/Las Vegas Review-Journal]
About Phillip Bupp
Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.
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