User:Kvwiki1234/Behind closed doors (sport)

COVID-19 pandemic
Games without crowds have become the norm due to the COVID-19 pandemic due to government-imposed restrictions on large gatherings to contain the virus. Almost all events that were not postponed or cancelled were held behind closed doors as broadcast only events.

Association football

 * The 2020 Indian Super League Final between ATK (football club) and Chennaiyin FC was forced to play behind closed doors due to the Coronavirus pandemic. ATK (football club) won the 2019–20 season, beating Chennaiyin FC 3–1.
 * The UEFA Europa League match between Inter Milan and Ludogorets Razgrad in San Siro Stadium, Milan, Italy, as well as all football matches in Italy between 4 March and 3 April.
 * The 2020 AFC Cup match between Ceres–Negros and Bali United at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, Philippines.
 * The final of the English FA Cup was held behind closed doors at Wembley Stadium in London, and played between Arsenal and Chelsea. The traditional pre-match performances of the National Anthem and cup hymn still took place.
 * The UEFA Europa League matches between Olympiacos and Wolverhampton Wanderers, and LASK and Manchester United.
 * The UEFA Champions League matches between Valencia and Atalanta, and Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund. Despite the ban on fans inside the stadium, thousands gathered outside to cheer PSG as they beat Borussia Dortmund.
 * Germany's Bundesliga announced plans to resume its 2019–20 season without spectators. On 6 May 2020, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, gave approval for the Bundesliga, suspended since March 2020, to recommence in May 2020 with all remaining games to be played behind closed doors.
 * South Korea's K League began its 2020 season on 8 May and Japan's J.League planned a mid-June return.

Athletics

 * The 2020 Tokyo Marathon was held with only elite competitors allowed to attend.
 * Similarly, the London Marathon (originally scheduled for 26 April, but was postponed to 4 October) will also be held only to attend elite competitors.

Australian rules football
The 2020 AFL season played its first round of matches without spectators before suspending the season.

Baseball

 * Japan's NPB held preseason games without fans until the season was postponed prior to opening day. The league planned to return without fans by mid-June 2020.
 * South Korea's KBO League began their 2020 season on 5 May without fans in attendance.
 * Taiwan's CPB League began play on 11 April without fans. Starting 8 May, a maximum of 1,000 fans were permitted to attend games.
 * Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada began its shortened 2020 season on 23 July and held without spectators, some MLB matches had virtual CGI fans in actual empty stadiums.

Basketball

 * The 2020 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament and other associated tournaments. Additionally, the Big Ten Conference announced that all spring sports played by member schools would be held without fans. This executive order also resulted in the NCAA choosing to restrict attendance of this and women's basketball tournaments to the participants' families, outside of areas where public attendance has been fully restricted. Both tournaments themselves would suffer its first cancellation in the 81-year history, including winter and spring sports.
 * On 11 March 2020, the National Basketball Association announced that a game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Golden State Warriors to be played at Chase Center in San Francisco during the regular matches of the 2019–20 season on the following day would start at its normal time of 10:30 p.m. EDT, with no fans being admitted. This measure was taken due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in the Bay Area, which prompted most cities in the metropolitan area (including San Francisco) to issue a ban on public gatherings with 1,000 people or higher. The restrictions were made moot with the league suspending the season a few hours later after a player tested positive for COVID-19. Starting 30 July 2020, the game resumed at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex inside Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida for the remainder of the season.

Mixed martial arts

 * ONE Championship's King of the Jungle in Singapore.
 * Since 14 March 2020, Ultimate Fighting Championship events have been held behind closed doors, such as UFC Fight Night 170 took place in Brasília, subsequent events were cancelled and resumed on 9 May at UFC 249.

Professional wrestling
WWE has moved all of its professional wrestling programs to a studio at its training facility in Orlando since 13 March 2020 with no audience, up to and including its flagship event WrestleMania 36 (originally scheduled to be held at Tampa, Florida's Raymond James Stadium on 5 April). Rival promotion All Elite Wrestling similarly moved its weekly program AEW Dynamite to a closed set, with the 18 March episode being aired from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida.

Sumo
The Haru basho in Osaka, Japan. When the tournament went underway several wrestlers, used to fighting in a usually packed arenas, remark on how odd it is to fight in a virtually empty arena, with Enhō commenting, "It’s like I can’t raise my fighting spirit...It made me wonder what I'm fighting for."

Cricket

 * The 2020 Pakistan Super League matches in Karachi were held without an audience. The Final match in Lahore, was also rescheduled from 22 to 18 March. The matches in National Stadium, Karachi were announced to take place without an audience from 13 March. International players were also allowed to leave the tournament.
 * In Australia, a cricket match between New Zealand black caps and Australia's team was held without an audience on 13 March.
 * In July 2020, the Wisden Trophy between England and West Indies was held, in which a series of 3 test matches was played between them.
 * In August and September 2020, Pakistan came to England to play a series of 3 test matches and 3 Twenty20 International matches, in "bio-secure" conditions behind closed doors.

Golf
The 2020 Players Championship was scheduled to play on its second day as it was due to plan without spectators, organizers had to cancel the remainder of the event. This subsequently had the PGA Tour to suspend the event until 11 June. With the Masters Tournament (the first men's major championship in 2020) being rescheduled from April to November, while the PGA Championship and U.S. Open also being rescheduled to August and September, respectively from their usual May and June schedule, and the Open Championship cancelled for the first time since 1945. The PGA Championship became the first men's major of the season and was held behind closed doors.

Gridiron football
A match between the Seattle Dragons and LA Wildcats of the XFL was scheduled to be played behind closed doors; the league's decision came shortly after Washington state governor Jay Inslee announced a ban on public assemblies of more than 250 people. The game was ultimately never played as the virus forced the league to prematurely terminate its 2020 season.

Horse racing
The British Horseracing Authority announced on 16 March that all horse racing in the UK would be held behind closed doors until the end of March.

Ice hockey
The Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League announced on 11 March 2020 that all of their remaining home games in the 2019–20 season at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio would be played behind closed doors due to an executive order by Ohio governor Mike DeWine that banned public gatherings with an attendance of 1,000 people or more, which was itself enacted in order to stop the spread of the aforementioned coronavirus outbreak. This would subsequently become moot the following day when the NHL suspended its season. Starting August 1, the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs commenced in the two bubble locations of Edmonton and Toronto.

Motorsport

 * In Formula One, the first scheduled Grand Prix of 2020 in Australia was cancelled, then the Bahrain Grand Prix (the second scheduled event of the Championship) which was expected to be media/TV-only event, was later postponed. The first few races of a re-scheduled 2020 season, including the Austrian, Styrian, Hungarian and two Grands Prix at Silverstone, took place in "bio-secure" conditions behind closed doors.
 * NASCAR's Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 and Dixie Vodka 400 races at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Homestead–Miami Speedway were not expected to admit fans; the events were later postponed. NASCAR resumed its season with The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway without fans in attendance. Throughout the remainder of the 2020 season, some tracks allowed a limited number of fans to attend races while other tracks held races without fans in attendance.

Tennis
The 2020 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California was postponed shortly before the beginning of the qualifying stage after a COVID-19 case was confirmed within Riverside County and the county's health department declared a public health emergency. Subsequently, both the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women's Tennis Association (WTA) announced that their seasons would be suspended until at least 31 July, with the 2020 French Open being rescheduled to September and Wimbledon being cancelled for the first time since 1945. Furthermore, the US Open will be played without spectators on a usual late August date.

Non-sporting events

 * The 2020 Dansk Melodi Grand Prix in Copenhagen, Denmark (a qualification event to the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was later canceled) was held with no audience being admitted.
 * The 2020 Geneva International Motor Show was cancelled days before its opening day due to Switzerland's self-imposed limit on gatherings of over 1,000 people. The Car of the Year award was presented live behind closed doors. A few car manufacturers who stayed, including Koeniggsegg, unveiled their models pre-recorded at the show.