NPB announced there will be a delay to the start of the 2020 season on Monday evening. In a meeting with representatives from all 12 teams, everyone agreed to this delay. Commissioner Atsushi Saito hopes to begin the season sometime in April.
With the 2020 Summer Olympics on schedule, the league initially decided to bump the baseball season up by a week to March 20. However, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has overtaken the stories around the world, Japan included. With cancellations and postponements for concerts, events, soccer and even schools, the country has remained on shutdown mode.
A joint force was formed earlier this month when NPB and the soccer league (J-League) agreed to work together in combating the Coronavirus situation. They've done numerous research awaiting thee status of how much COVID-19 has spread or not.
Fan and player safety have been the priority in regards to this decision. They also believe in protecting the sports culture besides the team representatives.
Spring Koshien was scheduled to begin on March 19 without any spectators. The Japan High School Baseball Federation had a representative at this meeting, but it appears they will make their own independent decision on March 11 on what lies ahead. They are still gathering information.
According to Kansai University, the economic loss of Spring Koshien and being without spectators will cost about ¥23.3 billion yen or about $233 million.
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