
NCAA cancels March Madness and other championships - infodocket
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-cancels-remaining-winter-and-spring-championships
======
mfer
This is going to have a cascading economic impact. There are the channels that
cover the tournament (e.g., ESPN), the tournament bracket sites that get ad
revenue, the local businesses around the stadiums that host the games, and so
much more.

~~~
outoftouchtech
This isn't meant to be directed at you, but it's hilarious to me what people
are focusing on, or what supposedly triggers concern. And just what economic
bubbles folks are in, with such little perspective for those around them that
share common infrastructure that is going to be stressed in the coming weeks
and months.

Look. I have multiple friends who have already had all of their shifts
canceled for the rest of March. And guess what, nothing is going to be better
April 1st. Those folks don't have investment funds to sell. They don't have
401Ks to skim from early, at great cost. They don't have friends and family
with money and their emergency fund wouldn't even cover the costs of HALF of a
Coronavirus test, let alone a weeks worth of rent.

We need to be talking about suspending evictions, delaying mortgage payments,
nationalizing health care, and more. And if you think this is over the top, go
watch and read about Italy and get back to me in 2.5 weeks. I can't wait for
the rest of America to understand just what a precarious and fragile system
we've built.

~~~
bhb916
Fragile systems are generally built using single points of failure. Centrally
planned solutions are generally rife with them. I will trust the robustness of
a system made up of 327.7M individual plans then the command solutions you are
suggesting. We will fair much better than Italy even if the disease is more
widespread here.

~~~
entee
That's not likely. Italy has more hospital capacity per capita than we do [1],
has lower cost hospital care, and has been more proactive about testing
(almost 8x tests performed) [2]. More beds means less strain when things get
bad. Lower costs means people don't wait to get care when needed. More testing
means we know where to dedicate resources.

The US is flying blind with a fragmented, expensive medical system that
discourages those who need care or testing from getting that care. What might
save us (marginally) is that much of the country is fairly rural, and we're
far less dense so the spread rate might be lower. However strictly none of the
doctors I've spoken to (one of whom is an infectious disease specialist at SF
General) believes we have the capacity to deal with the crisis. To a person
they say that if it starts spiraling in the US it will get very bad, very
fast.

By the way, those countries or areas that avoided the worst of it (Taiwan,
Singapore, several provinces in China outside Wuhan, to a limited extent South
Korea) have taken centralized, planned, dramatic action to do so. This is one
place where central planning is probably the better choice.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_countries_by_hosp...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_OECD_countries_by_hospital_beds)
[2]
[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/)

~~~
kxyvr
Not to delve too deeply into this, but I believe you're factually incorrect
about the hospital capacity of Italy versus the United States. What matters in
the number of critical care beds because they have the equipment available
such as a ventilator. A study from 2012 has Italy at 12.5 beds per 100k
people, which puts them at the high end of middle for Europe. For example,
Germany has 29.2 per 100k according to that study, which is more than double.
The United States has 34.9 per 100k people in 2009 [2] and I believe that
number has continued to go up. Also, to be clear, a better number is probably
number of critical care beds per 100k of people over 65 due to how more likely
they are to be affected. I don't know the current number for Italy, but the
United States according to the link above is at 189.4.

[1]
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229013572_The_varia...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229013572_The_variability_of_critical_care_bed_numbers_in_Europe)

[2]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4351597/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4351597/)

~~~
elhudy
Not sure why you are being downvoted. What interests me most is does the US
have the infrastructure in place to ramp up production as needed? While Italy
might have to "place an order" for more ventilators, there is at least one if
not more companies in the United States that can manufacture them. Staffing
nurses and doctors might be the bottleneck in the US, not the specialty
equipment. ICU travel nursing in NYC is already up to 20k+/mo in pay and that
number is steadily going up.

~~~
kxyvr
My understanding that a number of things contribute to this difficulty:

\- What are the number of critical care beds in the hospital?

\- What are the number of negative pressure rooms in the critical care unit?
Negative pressure rooms help keep a contagion contained.

\- Critical care rooms typically have a ventilator, but they require a
critical care physician to determine the correct parameters for the vent and a
respiratory therapist (RT) to set and monitor the vent

\- Does the critical care physician have the appropriate personal protective
clothing (PPC)? I believe the norm is some kind of suit along with an N95
mask. I'm not sure if this disease has something extra required.

Mostly, I mention this because the equation of what is necessary is complex
and breakdowns in this can cause problems. For example, if there's not enough
PPC, then the RT and physician can become ill, which means they can't treat
patients. At least in the U.S., critical care is a fellowship on top of a
residency, so you can't exactly replace them quickly. If there are not enough
negative pressure rooms, then the disease can spread more easily in the
hospital.

Now, that said, I don't know enough about Italy and their system to fully
explain what happened there. I do know that it's not as simple as number of
hospital beds, which is why I replied in the first place. This makes a direct
comparison to the U.S. at best difficult.

Anyway, there's a lot of dramatically incorrect information being thrown
around. There's a lot of people claiming to be physicians and saying some
really hyperbolic things. I'm not happy about that, so my small contribution
is to at least provide a better reference for something concrete, which is
number of ICU beds in the U.S. and elsewhere within the last decade.

~~~
kxyvr
For posterity's sake, one correction: Not all critical care rooms have a vent.
There's a certain number in the unit that are then pulled in.

------
danso
Devastating news. It’s sad enough that the NBA season was stopped, but the
NCAA tourney is often the high-water mark and finale for most of its players’
careers. But it’s a wise decision nonetheless; I’m surprised it was decided
before a player or coach was diagnosed with covid19

------
curiouscats
And a psychological impact. It would have been a very welcome distraction for
me. I realize there are many people who won't notice it is missing but quite a
few people would have had a nice way to distract themselves while socially
isolating themselves at home. It is a shame we waited so long to take action
to prevent the spread of covid19 in the USA that this became necessary given
the risks we face.

~~~
lessoutoftouch
I agree, it’s one of the things about pandemics I hadn’t realized, at all.
Other disasters and emergency situations still have their bread and circuses,
and I miss it.

------
luhn
I've felt a huge shift in public opinion in the US this week. People are
finally taking this seriously. With the federal government's inept response,
it's a ray of hope to see private institutions take such large measures to
keep a lid on this.

------
mmazing
I hope actions like this can start to make people wake up that this is in fact
serious and should be taken seriously.

Still too many people calling it a hoax and that it's no worse than a common
cold.

~~~
colechristensen
How bad does it have to be to fit in the "serious" vs. "not serious" bucket?

It's like a rather bad influenza. The mortality rate is fairly low and
difficult to estimate unless you test the entire population on a regular
basis. It isn't like one of the outbreaks that kills 10%, 20%, 50% of the
infected.

It shouldn't be ignored, but it also shouldn't be treated like a new black
death. It is difficult for uninformed people to say "people are overreacting
to a real threat".

~~~
nwallin
The fatality rate, and the rate at which people need intensive care, is 20-40
times that of the flu. If the fatality rate is 3%, and it affects half the US,
that's 5 million dead from the disease alone. If it affects half the world,
that's 100 million dead. Some estimates peg it as high as 4.8%.

In addition to all of the people it's going to kill, it will also decimate the
world's intensive care resources. Many people who would otherwise die will
live because they got a bed in intensive care. Conditions which complete for
these ICU beds will see their fatality rate sky rocket.

It is incontrovertibly in the "serious" bucket.

~~~
mmazing
These people just see the odds and think "oh it probably won't get me" without
any regard to anyone else.

It's the hallmark of being a conservative.

------
beat
Other sports, too. My favorite, Formula 1 racing, is in trouble. The MacLaren
team withdrew from sunday's first-in-season Australian GP after a team member
tested positive for coronavirus, and there are unconfirmed rumors that the
whole race will be canceled. (F1.com isn't saying that yet, but one of the top
drivers, Sebastian Vettel, said in a news conference that drivers would "pull
the handbrake" on the race if they didn't feel safe.)

The upcoming Chinese GP is being rescheduled, and the first-ever Vietnam GP
might also fall victim. Bahrain GP is scheduled for Mar 22, so if Australia
gets canceled, Bahrain probably will too.

This is a _huge_ and extremely expensive sport, one of the most popular and
lucrative in the world, with teams shipping dozens of personnel and many tons
of equipment all over the world. The logistics are a nightmare if it gets
changed.

------
matwood
This was basically a done deal this morning once the conferences canceled all
of their ongoing tournaments, and schools like Duke stopped all sports.

~~~
VWWHFSfQ
When Duke and Kansas said they were dropping out of the tournament it was
over. I bet the NCAA was still trying to figure out if they could still play
without fans in attendance. But once the Blue Bloods left, they knew it was
done.

------
gz5
hate it for the folks and families directly impacted but it is the safe
decision. it does make you think about how much of this is temporary and how
much results in sustained, macro level changes.

let's say many countries, companies and individuals "get used" to how we will
need to live over the next weeks/months. what things that we used to take as
"norms" may change, permanently, and what would the second and third order
effects be?

for example, let's say travel-centric entertainment (sports, concerts etc)
became more of an online experience than it already is, and WFH becomes more
prevalent. now many folks with "discretionary income and time" theoretically
have "extra" time and/or money. where would it go?

would we invest some of it into people and companies that are seeking to
improve things for the people that don't have discretionary income/time? would
we invest some of it in healthcare, biotech, etc. designed to try to prevent
future similar events? or would a variant of parkinson's law just swallow it?

~~~
tekstar
Also.. what freedoms are now at risk in an attempt to prevent the next
pandemic?

~~~
_dark_matter_
There are a _lot_ of things we can do to prevent and prepare for the next
pandemic that have nothing to do with curtailing freedoms. Let's focus on
those.

------
AnimalMuppet
But... but... now I don't have anything to watch while I'm quarantined!

Seriously, it's a bit of a bummer. I had hopes that this year a non-power-
conference team (Gonzaga, San Diego State, Dayton) could win it all. I know
there are bigger issues to worry about, but it's still a disappointment.

------
jlizzle30
ESports seem well positioned to take some of this mindshare.

------
ohyeshedid
MLS suspended it's season for 30 days. MLB opening day postponed for at least
two weeks. NHL suspended it's season.

Nascar is likely next.

~~~
brianTheDog
I can see them not having fans at the races, but Nascar drivers and pit crews
seem like they are at a lot less risk compared to basketball players.

I would actually think this would be a great time for Nascar to capitalize on
other sports being suspended.

~~~
ohyeshedid
They've already announced there will be no fans at the next two scheduled
races. There are still hundreds to thousands of people that work directly for
Nascar and all the racing teams, and they haven't mentioned anything about
cutting those numbers down as far as I've seen.

------
dpeck
This should result in an immediate extra year of scholarship eligibility for
any of the kids effected.

~~~
paxys
It doesn't affect student athletes all that much. There will still be a draft,
as always.

~~~
brianTheDog
Whoever came up with the term “student athlete” when talking about slaves in
college is a genius!

I like to think if that term never existed then maybe society wouldn’t let
universities exploit them for millions of dollars while paying them nothing.

~~~
bluedevil2k
I see you removed your earlier racist comment about student athletes being
slaves and decided to double down and write it again. So I’ll double down too
- you should be banned for this comment.

------
SkyMarshal
Why not instead cancel the live audience, but keep the tournament? Play the
games in empty stadiums, but televise them. And test the players before each
game starts.

Everything is going virtual now anyway, sports might as well too. That also
maintains at least some of the ad revenue and other economic activity while
still greatly minimizing risk of spreading the outbreak.

~~~
TuringNYC
>> And test the players before each game starts.

There are apparently no synchronous tests (e.g. antibody tests) in the US
currently. Asynchronous tests (PCR) are hard to come by, and take 3 hours to
run with a 2-3 day lead time at best.

------
dmitrygr
good. this country spends too much of people's money and attention on this
nonsense. maybe we can make this permanent.

it is insane that one can get into a college with zero brain power just for
being tall (and ncaa and co enable that). what possible use does society have
for that long term?

~~~
oxymoran
Entertainment...

What use does society have for Facebook and Twitter long term? Those are far
more detrimental to society than college basketball.

~~~
dmitrygr
couldn't agree more

------
RocketSyntax
So soft. Teams should just play. Anyone that isn't sick can play. It's a 5v5
game. Next thing you know tennis matches will be canceled.

~~~
BOBOTWINSTON
So socially responsible.

This hurts a lot for some of us. I am a Creighton fan and this was our first
big year in a long time, maybe our best of all time.

Sports fans get accused of forgetting "it is all a game" sometimes. It is
certainly more than a game when you think of how much some people's lives
depend on the money from these events, but limiting the impact of this virus
is certainly not "soft".

~~~
RocketSyntax
It's not a game to those players. It's their life. If they don't want to get
the flu it should be their choice not to play.

~~~
jgwil2
I really don't think I should be having to make this comment, but it's not the
flu. You know it's not the flu, we all know it's not the flu. Please stop
trolling.

