Dr Fauci: Sports Without Fans Only Way to Bring Back Games

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci the most critical element to bringing back sports is not having fans at game.

Stories shaping sports and business from Wednesday, April 15.

Dr. Fauci Offers Solution to Bring Back Sports

Dr. Anthony Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and of course on President Trump's COVID-19 Task Force. Fauci recently did an interview on Snapchat and gave his thoughts on when we will see sports back in action and how some leagues can accomplish it.

He made a few suggestions, including no fans at stadiums, weekly tests for players, plus athletes and coaches living in a centralized hotel. But he emphasized the need for massive amounts of tests and closely monitoring players if sports were to resume.

According to President Trump's point-man for all things medically relating to COVID-19, the most critical element to bringing back sports is not having fans at games.

President Trump Taps Sports Leaders for Economic Advisor Group

President Trump is creating a 200-person advisory board, separate from his COVID-19 Task Force, that will focus on reopening the American economy. Trump asked some of the biggest leaders from the sports world to help with that committee.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, UFC President Dana White, PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan, NASCAR Board of Director Lesa Kennedy, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban are all on this advisory panel.

Representatives from Cisco Systems (CISCO), Tyson Foods (TSN), Archer Daniels Midland, Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC), US Bank, Morgan Stanley (MS), Grand Rapids State Bank and Southern Bank Corp. are also included in the task force. The White House is calling this committee the Great American Economic Revival Industry Group.

Coronavirus Update

There are now more than 2 million cases of the coronavirus worldwide, and 129,000 deaths.

The U.S. has over 613,000 cases of the virus, Spain has over 177,000 cases and Italy has over 165,000 cases. The U.S. also has the most deaths, with over 24,000 per data from Johns Hopkins. Italy has over 21,000 deaths and Spain has over 18,000. New York governor Andrew Cuomo has made wearing a mask mandatory in places where you cannot social distance. He noted that there won’t be jail-time, but offenders could receive fines.

Turning our attention to business, U.S. retail sales fell 8.7% in March, which was wider than estimates that called for a decline of 8%. The declines last month, driven by stay-at-home orders that forced many businesses such as restaurants to shut their doors, were the most since the Commerce Department began compiling the data in 1992.

And the Empire State Manufacturing Index registered a -78.2, a record low, as factory floors went dark during the coronavirus pandemic. Economists had expected a decline to -35. The decline in 2008 after the crash was -34.3, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics noted.

TheStreet's Katherine Ross contributed to this report.