00:00If it comes back too soon, and irresponsibly, it won't be an inspiration, it'll be a cautionary tale.
00:06John Oliver is cautioning the hasty return of sporting events on Last Week Tonight.
00:11First lamenting on the loss of professional and collegiate sports, Oliver cited a report that said $12 billion in revenue
00:17and hundreds of thousands of jobs are being lost amid the pandemic.
00:21And this includes not just high-paid athletes, but minimum-wage staff like stadium cooks
00:25and others who tend to fans during games who are now suffering without an income.
00:30The people paid to tend to those monsters really depend on their monster money.
00:34He then turned to the broadcasting world, noting how sports networks are showing years-old games
00:38or athletes at home playing video games, even citing a Russian slapping competition video that's been making the rounds.
00:44If we are all reaching the point of desperation, where we're honestly willing to watch large men slap each other in a windowless room,
00:52there is clearly a desire to restart sporting events.
00:55But however much fans are craving the return of sports, Oliver says,
00:58The host noted how Florida had decided early on that professional sports and media production
01:05with a national audience was essential, as long as the public was unable to attend,
01:09leading the WWE, AEW, and UFC to proceed with fights.
01:13However, a UFC fighter and two of his cornermen had recently tested positive.
01:17If you want to come back completely without risk, that's just not possible right now.
01:22Oliver then turned to Major League Baseball, which at first said it would stage all games in Arizona and put players in hotel rooms.
01:29It all becomes much, much more complicated because, of course, you wouldn't just be isolating players.
01:34He noted,
01:34Oliver argues that, unfortunately, though, bringing people together is the exact thing we should not be doing right now.
02:01To read more, head to the article on THR.com.
02:04For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.
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