With summer coming, so are many of the world’s professional sports leagues. The German Bundesliga was the first to return, and now several of the other first-division soccer leagues, including La Liga, Serie A and Major League Soccer. The American first division has been on hiatus since March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it looks like a plan is in place to get the league back up and running. No precise date has been set yet, but the plan is to have all 26 teams head to Orlando, Florida, to play matches. If you’re considering including MLS in your sports betting, take a look at the latest plans & MLS Odds for the league’s return.
Soccer News: MLS COVID-19 Status & Return Date
The first phase of the return plan began on May 6, when teams were authorized to start workouts for individual players. At that time, players would work out on their own, under social distancing guidelines, so testing was not required. The second phase began on June 1, as players began training in groups of no larger than six. Social distancing was still maintained, so testing was not required.
The third phase is full team training, which will require full testing. The teams will have to provide their own testing in their home cities before the head to Florida. The teams have to have the capacity to test, permission from their local government entities to resume training and sanitized team facilities and adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to perform the testing.
Once the teams arrive in Florida, MLS will provide testing after that. Testing will take place upon arrival and then ongoing. The format is expected to resemble a tournament, although specific details remain unaddressed, such as the format and competition dates.
According to the agreement that MLS and the MLS Players’ Association reached, games could begin as soon as June 24. Players would lodge at Disney World resorts. The NBA is not likely to start until July 31, and the NHL could start even later. Major League Baseball has targeted June 30, but talks between the owners and the players’ union have been fruitless to this point.
The benefit of a slightly earlier start is exposure, as MLS would be the only American professional sports league with live games to televise. This means that the major networks would likely broadcast their games in prime time. That is something that would never happen if there were hockey and basketball playoffs going on, along with daily baseball games, due to the position that soccer has in the United States.
This means that there is a chance for MLS to reach viewers that they would never have reached before and to grow the profile of soccer in the United States. Given that there are already Bundesliga games on and will soon be La Liga and Serie A games, though, it will be incumbent on the teams to put on matches that show skill and talent. There is a significant gap in talent between the European first divisions and Major League Soccer, so while this could prove beneficial for the American game, it could also show why American soccer still lags behind its European counterparts. For the betting enthusiast, though, any live action is good action.
