Cause And Effect Essay On 9/11 Sports

September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001 had a significant impact on major sporting events prompting cancellations, postponements, and rescheduling of match fixtures. The terrorist attack had such a huge unprecedented impact on the American people that nothing else seems important than addressing the security challenge at the moment. For example, 15 major league baseball games and four Major League Soccer games scheduled for that night were all postponed without any plan for rescheduling. The same is true of U.C.L.A. and Southern California who postponed all sports events through the weekend except for Saturday night's U.C.L.A.-Arizona State football game.

While some events were immediately postponed or cancelled, others like the National Football League had a searching of
heart and were uncertain when best to play their match. The reason for this is quite understandable, they were having “one or two family members unaccounted for who work in and around the World Trade Center.'' Similarly, the National Collegiate Athletic Association left it up to conferences and colleges to decide whether to postpone or cancel other weekend games. On the other hand, Madison Square Garden officials said they would decide today whether Saturday night's middleweight championship bout between Bernard Hopkins and Felix Trinidad would go on.

The impact of the terrorist attack was not limited to postponement and match fixtures as some events were completely cancelled. Take for example; the first two games of the week's college football schedule, both at Atlantic Coast Conference sites, were immediately called off. The organizers of the match fixtures holding at Penn State at Virginia, and Ohio University at North Carolina State shut down all sports events through the following day. Others like Brown, part of the Ivy League, canceled its football game Saturday at San Diego. The Hopkins-Trinidad fight which was the last in a tournament in boxing's strongest division had their fighters scheduled to work out at 1 p.m. yesterday at the Waterfront Gym on New Street, near the World Trade Center. The workout was canceled and today's 11 a.m. news conference at the Theater at Madison Square Garden was postponed.

The September 11 2001 terrorist attack effect on major sporting events was not limited to New York City or United State alone. Its ripple effect was felt across the Atlantic Ocean. Take for instance, One European hockey game was canceled in Germany. The Nuremberg Ice Tigers, who have three American players, voted not to play last night. In Columbus, Ohio, last night's doubleheader in the Nike U.S. Women's Cup was canceled, and the players were unsure about the rest of the schedule. The American players, who were to play Japan last night, were told to stay close to their rooms.

Other sporting events outside soccer were unanimous in either postponing or cancelling their match fixtures.
Among these are the Professional Golfers' Association who postponed the fixture scheduled for the following day opening rounds of the American Express Championships (with Tiger Woods) in St. Louis, the Tampa Bay Classic in Palm Harbor, Fla., and the Buy.Com Tour's Oregon Classic in Junction City, Ore; Country Club was called off with the organization saying “the tournament would not be played this week and would be rescheduled or canceled”. The Long Island Golf Association's women's amateur championship at Bethpage State Park's Yellow Course was cut from two days to one, and several women whose husbands worked at the World Trade Center left before finishing the first round. Similarly, Minor League Baseball playoff games were postponed in nine leagues

The story is the same with Horse Racing where all live racing around the country, including the Meadowlands, Yonkers Raceway, Calder, Laurel, Pimlico, Philadelphia Park and Delaware Park, was canceled through that same day. Auto Racing was not left out as Nascar canceled qualifying for its events in Loudon, N.H., this
weekend.

By this report, it is understandable that the September 11 2001 terrorist attack had a ripple effect on the sporting events all across the United States and across the Atlantic Ocean. While some sporting events were postponed, others were cancelled while others remain undecided when to reschedule their match fixtures.

Source:

Litsky, F. & Williams, L. (2001, September). Many Sporting Events Called Off or Postponed.

Time, 167 (1). Retrieved from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/12/sports/many-sporting-events-called-off-or-postponed.html