Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has deemed live sports an essential business.

Yes, this is real. 

It is believed that DeSantis signed the order so that the WWE could hold its production of Monday Night Raw in Orlando. The WWE needed essential workers at the arena to pull off the event, hence the reasoning for the signing.

In the order, the governor included “athletes, entertainers, production team, executive team, media team and any others necessary to facilitate including services supporting such production.” This doesn’t mean much for anybody except the WWE. 

The WWE put out a statement after the governor’s order went public, saying, “We believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times.” Operations for the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB remain shut down. The MLB has proposed playing in Florida and Arizona. 

The order does help the MLB in its attempt to hold the season in Florida, but there are simply too many factors involved; it appears unlikely that it will work out for the MLB or any other professional sports league. Leagues have to think about everyone when it comes to returning to play. Leagues don’t want to jeopardize the health of players, coaches, executives, stadium or park workers and fans.

Some could argue that the NHL could return to play in Florida and utilize Amalie Arena and BB&T Arena for play, as well as other rinks in the state of Florida. If we see leagues return in Florida because of this order, it would not be surprising if some athletes do not report to their positions. All four major leagues have athletes from around the world, and countries are all at different points in their battle with COVID-19. For example, if we see the NHL return, an athlete from Sweden is not going to come back to the United States if Sweden still has travel restrictions in place.

With this announcement from Governor DeSantis, the UFC may make a run at putting on events in Florida without fans. UFC 249 was supposed to take place on Saturday, April 18, but was canceled.

UFC President Dana White said of the cancelation, "Today, we got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney, and the highest level at ESPN ... and the powers that be there asked me to stand down and not do this event [next] Saturday." White later said that the fights will happen on Saturday, May 9, with a location to be determined. 

We have a long road ahead of us, but hopefully sports will be back all around the world soon.

 Photo courtesy of Alex Driehaus