Sources: Trump says NFL should start on time

In a conference call with major league sports commissioners on Saturday, President Donald Trump said he believes the NFL season should start on time in September, sources familiar with the call told ESPN.

Trump also said he hopes to have fans back in stadiums and arenas by August and September, sources said, although it is currently unclear if medical experts find that to be a realistic timeline amid the current coronavirus pandemic.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver told those on the call that the leagues were the first to shut down and that they would love to lead the way in starting the economy once there was an « all clear » from public health officials, sources familiar with the call told ESPN.

The NBA was the first league to suspend play, on March 11.

Trump also raised the idea of the leagues working together to lobby for tax incentives that used to exist for entertainment expenses, such as the ability to deduct concessions and tickets from taxes, sources said. That would be a way for leagues to jump-start fans’ ability to return to stadiums in a difficult economy.

The call included 12 major sports commissioners and top executives from the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball, NHL, Major League Soccer, WNBA, WWE, the PGA Tour, LPGA, UFC, IndyCar and Breeders’ Cup, according to a White House pool report.

Asked if he anticipated that the NFL season would open in August or September with 80,000 fans, California Governor Gavin Newsom said, « I’m not anticipating that happening in this state. »

« It’s interesting, I have a lot of friends that work in Major League Baseball and in the NFL, they’ve been asking me — in fact, a well-known athlete just asked me — a football player — if he expects to come back, I said, ‘I would move very cautiously in that expectation,' » Newsom said during his daily news briefing Saturday. « So look I’m not here to second guess anybody, but I am here to say this, our decision on that basis, at least here in the state of California, will be determined by the facts, will be determined by the health experts, will be determined by our capacity to meet this moment, bend the curve and have the appropriate community surveillance and testing to confidently determine whether that’s appropriate and right now I’m just focused on the immediate, but that’s not something I anticipate happening in the next few months. »

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28995399/sources-trump-says-nfl-start