With the Coronavirus spreading, coverage of your local NHL, MLB, NBA and MLS teams will be curtailed. The aforementioned leagues issued a joint statement invoking a policy, believed to be temporary, limiting access to players and coaches before and after games. The policy deems that only those considered essential personnel will be allowed in the clubhouse and facilities operated by these teams. It went into effect Tuesday.
Before getting too much more into how this will factor into coverage of these teams, let me say, I don’t blame these leagues at all. I understand that protecting your players and staff is of the utmost importance, and it should be. With the uncertainty of the virus itself this became necessary. In some ways it’s protecting media members as well, staying out of a place that sometimes becomes an incubator for the flu, colds and other maladies. You’ve undoubtedly heard countless times from a manager or head coach, “Something’s going around the clubhouse…”. Again, I get it. I will admit though, that it’s strange not to be going into a clubhouse today. It’s something I’ve been doing on a nearly daily basis for 20 plus years.
Media Relations staffs across the country are working with front offices to figure out how best to adapt to the policy and still serve the media covering the various teams. I don’t envy this position. You can guarantee that not every media outlet will be happy with this turn of events. I’m a broadcaster for a team involved in this and the policy extends to me as well. Yes, this will make it more difficult to do my job, but I, along with many others, will have to figure out ways to continue to keep an audience informed.
What else can you do? Work harder and more creatively for one thing. Test your abilities to think outside the box and come up with alternative ways of keeping things informative. I’m still going to show up and continue to do my job to the best of my ability. How can I be angry when the goal is to keep people healthy?
The result will certainly be damaging to the coverage coming out of these facilities. Original reporting will be nearly impossible to achieve. Players and coaches will be made available outside of the team complexes to continue a flow of information. It will however be mostly the same information presented by each media outlet. We will be talking to the same people at the same time. It will be tough for media organizations to “break news” during these unusual circumstances.
Again, it’s nobody’s fault. I do admire the extra effort being put in by many of the team’s media relations people. They are affected by this as well. They are trying to accommodate one on one interviews to the best of their abilities.
I’ve seen many things on social media leading up to this decision by the four leagues. Some contend we don’t belong in the locker room to begin with. I completely disagree with the notion. “It’s the players domain”, says one person. “Why do you need to be in there when you can talk to players in other places?” asks another.
Well the truth is, we as media members need to be in the various clubhouses and locker rooms to do our jobs and bring our listeners, viewers and readers information. Do you as an audience member want to read, see, or hear the same information almost word for word on TV, radio, on the web or in your newspaper?
There is a lot of standing around at times, but there are equal times where stories are being developed. They are not always are the negative stories. Personal triumphs, human interest and internal battles are learned about by being around these human beings.
I’ve read elsewhere from fans responding to articles and tweets, they don’t believe the sports media serves a purpose anymore. Those fans feel like the personal social media sites for the player is a better way to “get to know a player”. Some say it’s self-serving to even be talking about the issue of being shut out of the clubhouse because of a spreading pandemic. I couldn’t disagree more with all of those theories and thoughts. I respect your opinion, but I’m not of the same mindset as you.
Journalists, yes there still are quite a few out there, pride themselves in building relationships with players and coaches. Developing a trust, asking good questions and producing original quality stories is what we do for a living. To be asked to do the same while not having access to players or coaches in that setting is not a fair ask. However, your audience is still craving the information. We are going to have to figure out how to get this done under less than ideal circumstances.
For those out there still feeling like “what’s the difference if you’re in there or not?”, the game will go on in either case. Yeah, you’re right but consider what might be next. If this virus keeps spreading, the games may go on, but without you. Meaning, games could be played with no fans in the stands. It’s already happening in other countries. It’s happening for some college basketball tourneys. Why wouldn’t major pro sports be next?
Andy Masur is a columnist for BSM and works for WGN Radio as an anchor and play-by-play announcer. He also teaches broadcasting at the Illinois Media School. During his career he has called games for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox. He can be found on Twitter @Andy_Masur1 or you can reach him by email at Andy@Andy-Masur.com.
