I've been both a little amazed and confused the past couple of weeks as the NBA and MLS plan to resume play in Orlando after COVID-19 related shutdowns halted the leagues' seasons. Both leagues are to restart as they hold games at Disney World in Orlando. What has made me confused - as someone who's never been to Disney World and thinks it's not much more than a massive theme park with some other entertainments - is how are the 2 leagues accommodated at the same time?
We're talking about 100s of players, with multiple games happening everyday (at least in the beginning), hospitality for them and all the coaches, trainers, etc. I guess all basketball games can happen on 1 court so long as there are no simultaneous games. Soccer would be harder as the pitch quality would be sabotaged with continuous use. So there would have to be either many fields, or just one artificial turf. Can artificial turf withstand multiple games a day and still be in shape for top tier matches for weeks? And when teams don't play, they need to practice which requires having few other courts and fields, as well as gyms, and administrative facilities for team meetings, massages, entertainment, etc for many teams all at once. Since there won't be any fans, the facilities don't need to have capacities for 10s of thousands of fans as usual. But I assume the quality for the athletes should be just as good as their home stadiums/arenas to keep injury rates low, and avoid lower quality of game play.
So are there really enough top tier sports facilities at Orlando Disney World to host both leagues at the same time? If so, why does it have so much high quality sports facilities? Has it always been a hub for sports? Or strictly sports talking, the facilities aren't as high level and these leagues and players acknowledge that, yet agreed to play there to finish their seasons?
