July’s Action: US Sports Make Their Big Comeback

A roundup of all the major US sports that returned to action in July.

Over the past couple of months across Asia and Europe we’ve slowly seen the sporting world return to action. Well July was all about the USA, with heavyweights MLB, NBA and MLS (among others) all returning to action.

Below we take a quick look at how the return to play looked by focusing on opening days…

NBA – #WholeNewGame

After a lengthy pause the NBA returned to action at the end of July with 22 teams setting up shop in the ESPN Bubble at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. With a new campaign ‘#WholeNewGame’ the NBA is looking give back to fans by trialing new technologies to enhance experiences while arenas remain closed. There’s new camera angles, big screens courtside and enhanced audio to listen in on players and coaches, to name just a few innovations.

Opening night saw the New Orleans Pelicans take on Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers against Los Angeles Clippers with both games drawing in a whopping 2.9 million average viewers , with 4.1 million at it’s peak!

So let’s jump right in! Here’s two big reasons why the Jazz triumphed in Orlando…

Oh and about those big courtside screens. Things are always easier when mom has your back… 💪

Let’s not forget the thrilling encounter featuring LA’s finest…

Or if you’re simply a 3-pointer kind of fan we’ve got you covered there too…

LeBron’s post game interview summed up the night perfectly:

“Basketball has always been bigger than just the ball and the rim…. We want to continue to spread love across America.”

MLS – aMericans Love Soccer

Major League Soccer kicked off a special tournament #MLSisBack (also held in Florida) at the start of July, and for any doubters its proved that Americans really do love soccer just as much as any sport! In fact at its audience peak over half a million people were viewing the the tournament opener on ESPN.

The opening game saw Ex-Manchester United star Nani provide both an assist and score a last minute goal to secure the win for Orlando City SC against state rivals (and another Man Utd star, David Beckham’s) Inter Miami CF.

And just look at what it meant to fans in the parking lot…

Showing the rest of the world their passion for football is just as strong…

United Soccer League also returned in July and became one of the first US sports to allow home fans to watch games in the stadium since the Covid-19 outbreak…

MLB – 🎶 Take Me Out to the Ball Game 🎶

To say that the MLB was missed during the global sport hiatus is a massive understatement. 4 million people tuned in to ESPN to watch Opening Day, the most-watched regular season MLB game on any network since 2011. That’s up 232% from 2019. So yeah, there’s a bunch of very happy fans out there that are over the moon that the MLB is back!

Before Opening Day could take place teams took part in training at a special MLB Summer Camp at the start of the month. These warm up events gave us a sneak peek at how MLB may be played with new health and safety restrictions in place.

Here’s Yankees Zack Britton with his personally assigned bag of balls…

With games being played in closed ballparks broadcasters started to get creative by adding tech features to enhance atmospheres. Here’s how Fox Sports added virtual fans to its MLB broadcasts…

Over to the Opening Day action now. How about this for sportsmanship, Cubs star Anthony Rizzo handing out sanitizer to the opposition during the game…

We’ve waited a long time since the last walk-off grand slam on Opening Day…

How did Trevor Story manage this tag?! Elvis Andrus is still in shock to this day…

And lastly, as the caption below says, you’ll definitely want the sound on for this one…

NASCAR

OK NASCAR officially came back in May, but there was plenty of drama and goings on in July to give them a quick mention. Such as Denny Hamlin’s car up in flames…

Desperate race fans outside Indianapolis Motor Speedway trying to catch a glimpse of the action…

NASCAR fans were however allowed to attend events later in July with up to 30,000 spectators allowed inside the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Socially distanced inside the grandstands of course, it marked the largest NASCAR event and largest attendance of all US sports since sports returned to action.

Global Roundup

Elsewhere around the world we saw plenty of other competitions and tournaments continue their comeback. Over in England we saw some great football played in one of the oldest cup competition in the world, the FA Cup, with Arsenal claiming their 14th FA Cup trophy. You can see all the semi-final action and the final highlights in the following tweets…

July also so the return of Japan’s J League. One of the highlights from the opening weekend was the Osaka derby between Gamba and Cerezo, check out the strike that won it!

And the Cerezo fans celebrated in the most awesome Japanese way ever, (catchy tune)… 😜

Last up, Speedway fans in Poland thought up a brilliant way to watch all the racing action and support their teams during these times of social distancing, by borrowing a bunch of cranes (21 in fact). Now that’s commitment! 👏

Looking Ahead

Plenty of action lies ahead in August!

If you enjoyed this roundup be sure to check out June’s roundup .

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