The Post’s Ryan Dunleavy provides a status report on how all of the different sports are handling their COVID-19 comeback planning:
NHL
Current status: Suspended since March 12, when all teams had 11-14 regular-season games remaining.
Restart situation: An approved 24-team playoff to be clustered in two hub cities, with the top four teams in each conference playing round-robin games to determine seeding during their “bye.” The next eight in each conference play a best-of-five qualifying series (matchups already determined) to advance to the first round. Season is over for bottom-seven teams.
Location status: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh are possibilities. Toronto, Vancouver and Edmonton also are in the running but will be discounted if Canada does not amend its mandatory 14-day quarantine for anyone entering the country.
Timetable: Formal training camps will begin no sooner than July 1, pushing the start of the tournament until late July or early August and delaying the start of the 2020-21 season.
MLB
Current status: Suspended since March 12, with less than two weeks left in spring training. The regular season was to begin on March 26.
Restart situation: MLB proposed an 82-game season and a sliding scale by which those players earning the most would lose the highest percentage of their salaries. The players association balked at the proposal and is expected to counter with more games and no further pay cut beyond the already agreed upon prorated salaries. A new schedule would need to be configured emphasizing division games and limiting travel.
Location status: For spring training, some teams would return to their normal headquarters in Florida and Arizona, while others would gather at their home parks. For the regular season, the league is hoping to play games in home parks. For the Blue Jays to play at home, Canada would need to budge off its 14-day quarantine. It is likely there will be fan-less games — at least at the start.
Timetable: MLB is hoping for a June resumption of spring training — possibly shortened to two weeks — with regular-season games underway by July 4 weekend and a close-to-on-time completion of the playoffs. If games don’t start until August, it would mean a shortened schedule or rolling the dice against the weather and extending the regular season into October and the postseason into November.
NFL
Current status: Business as usual. Free agency, the draft and the schedule release all went off without interruption.
Restart situation: Facilities are open to certain employees in states where allowed by the government, but coaches and non-injured players remain prohibited. Coaches could simultaneously return next week across the league. Teams are conducting virtual meetings/workouts for at least two more weeks.
Location status: The one- or two-city model does not work for the NFL given the once-per-week nature of the schedule. It is possible teams could temporarily relocate, especially for training camp, if their state’s recovery metrics lags far behind others.
Timetable: Training camps remain scheduled to open in late July, the first preseason game is Aug. 6 and the regular-season opener is Sept. 10. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy did not rule out the possibility of fans in the stands at some point and the Dolphins revealed a plan (scolded by commissioner Roger Goodell) for limited-capacity seating.
NBA
Current status: First league to suspend action — with some teams still on the court — on March 11, after Jazz star Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus. Players’ paychecks starting in May were reduced by 25 percent, with the overall cut still to be determined.
Restart situation: Commissioner Adam Silver presented multiple options to NBA’s Board of Governors. A vote on Silver’s preferred proposal could happen as soon as next week, with July 31 as a target date for resuming. Most likely the rest of the regular season will be scrapped, with 20-24 teams returning.
Location status: The league will be concentrated for housing, practices and games in a one-city bubble, expected to be at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando.
Timetable: Targeting a July return.
WNBA
Current status: Delayed start to the regular season (May 15).
Restart situation: Draft held April 17 set a 14-year high for viewership. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert hopes to play the full 36-game regular season and told the Washington Post, “We’re getting much closer to a plan that’s not changing so much.”
Location status: Unclear.
Timetable: Unclear, though the WNBA mandated teams cut rosters to 12 by Monday to begin paying players. One potential conflict under a long delay is many WNBA stars play overseas in high-paying leagues during winter months.
MLS
Current status: Suspended since March 12, two weeks into the regular season.
Restart situation: Voluntary group training sessions are underway. A June restart of training camps for three-to-four weeks followed by group-stage play and knockout rounds reportedly is on the table.
Location status: Entire league headquartered at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando.
Timetable: MLS hopes to squeeze the entire season into 10 weeks, according to ESPN.
PGA/LPGA
Current status: Both suspended play March 12, after one completed round at PGA’s The Players Championship.
Restart situation: The PGA will return June 11-14 for the fan-less Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, Texas. The LPGA will return July 23-26 for the Marathon Classic at Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, Ohio — but it could be canceled if fans are not permitted to attend.
NWSL
Current status: Scheduled to be the first American professional sports team league to resume, after delaying the regular-season start from April 18.
Restart situation: Individual workouts returned May 6, small-group training returned this week and team training is a few days away, building up to a June 27 return in a 25-game tournament.
Location status: Two sites in Utah.
Timetable: All nine teams will play four games in a preliminary round and the top eight will move on to knockout rounds culminating in a July 26 final.
Tennis
Current status: Wimbledon was canceled for the first time in 75 years, The French Open will be contested Sept. 20 through Oct. 4, and U.S. Open officials are working on potential restart scenarios, but no decision has been made on the U.S. Open.
Restart situation: All major tours are suspended through July 31, with more than 40 tournaments canceled from the men’s and women’s calendars combined. Exhibitions were contested in the United States and other parts of the world throughout May.
Boxing
Current status: World Boxing Council advised promoters and commissioners to put boxers and their teams in 14 days of isolation before staging fan-less events. Judges will score fights by watching from home on television.
Restart situation: Top Rank boxing is scheduled to hold a series of fights at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, with the first five-fight card set for June 9.
UFC
Restart situation: Nevada ended its moratorium on combat sports Wednesday and UFC immediately announced a Fight Night for Saturday in Las Vegas, followed by UFC250 at the same site June 6.
Auto racing
Restart situation: NASCAR returned to action May 17 in South Carolina and scheduled fan-less races in multiple states across the south through June 21. IndyCar returns June 6 at Texas Motor Speedway, while the Indianapolis 500 was rescheduled for Aug. 23. Formula 1 is eyeing a July 5 return in Austria without fans and a multi-continent schedule through November. NHRA pushed back its tentative restart from June to August in hopes of welcoming fans at 18 drag-racing events through November.
International soccer
Restart situation: The English Premier League will hold matches June 17 — more than three months after shutdown — between Manchester City and Arsenal, as well as Aston Villa and Sheffield United, before all teams resume over the following weekend. All 92 games remaining will be fan-less and some could be played at neutral sites to avoid fan clusters outside the doors. Bundesliga in Germany resumed May 16, while Spain’s La Liga starts June 11, Series A in Italy on June 20 and Champions League has been postponed. Euro 2020 and Copa America have been moved to 2021 (proposed dates June 11-July 11).
College sports
Current status: NCAA extended recruiting dead period (no face-to-face contact) in all sports through July 31 and allowed football and men’s and women’s basketball athletes to return to campuses beginning Monday. Conferences already are handling athletes’ return to campus dates very differently. Neither the NCAA nor conferences will mandate the usual uniform start date, deferring to state and local governments.
Football/Basketball: Steps are underway toward on-time starts, and Yahoo Sports reports the NCAA football oversight committee could recommend an expanded six-week preseason camp model for approval by mid-June. The key issue: Can athletes practice and play games when campuses are shut for academics? Several major California universities will hold virtual classes through the fall semester. It is possible football will be played at some schools and not at others, even within the same conference because of spread-out geography. Basketball practice typically begins in mid-October and will follow the lead of NCAA fall sports.
Olympics
Restart situation: The Summer Olympics in Tokyo were postponed and are scheduled to open July 23, 2021 and close on Aug. 8.
Canadian Football League
Restart situation: Some teams have reopened facilities and the rest are expected to follow suit in the next two weeks. The league announced it will not resume games before September, if at all, and the Grey Cup championship game will be played at the home of the participant with the superior record.
Horse racing
Restart situation: The Belmont Stakes will be held June 20 without fans, as the first leg of the Triple Crown instead of the traditional last. The Kentucky Derby is on for Sept. 5 and the Preakness Stakes for Oct. 3. Tracks are open in some states and will reopen Monday in New York with Belmont starting on Wednesday. New Jersey officials have not said whether tracks will be open in time for the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on July 18.