march, fina announced that several international water polo tournaments would be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. the 2020 men's water polo olympic qualification tournament due to take place in rotterdam, netherlands, 22–29 march, would be postponed to 31 may – 7 june, then it was postponed again to 21–28 february 2021. the 2020 fina men's water polo world league and 2020 fina women's water polo world league would be postponed to september–october 2020. asia 2020 asian water polo championship, the asian continental qualification for the 2020 olympic water polo tournament, was scheduled to take place in nur-sultan, kazakhstan, 12–16 february 2020. in late january the event was canceled as the kazakh government suspended all flights and visas from china due to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak in the country. in mid-february asia swimming federation decided to use the final ranking of the 2018 asian games to allocate its continental quotas. europe on 28 february 2020, european swimming league (len) announced that the match of 2019–20 len champions league day 10 between ferencváros (hungary) and pro recco (italy), and the match of 2019–20 len euro cup semifinal between egri vk (hungary) and an brescia (italy) would be postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. on 11 march 2020, len announced that all eight matches of 2019–20 len champions league day 11, the second leg of the 2019–20 len euro league women quarter-finals, and the 2020 men's u19 european championships qualification tournaments would be postponed to later dates due to the coronavirus pandemic. north america on 11 march 2020, the usa water polo (usawp) announced that the 2020 odp girls national water polo championship would be postponed, and the exhibition matches scheduled to be played on 19–21 march 2020 in california between united states and spain men's national water polo teams would be canceled. on 16 march 2020, usawp announced that the inaugural usa water polo division iii women's national championship scheduled for 8–10 may 2020 in southern california would be rescheduled for may 2021; and week three of the 2020 national water polo league and the 2020 national league championship/fisher cup would be canceled. oceania on 16 march 2020, the water polo australia (wpa) announced that the 2020 australian national water polo league would be terminated, the 2020 wpa national championships scheduled to take place in adelaide, south australia in may would be canceled, and the 2020 open championships (country and masters) scheduled to take place in the gold coast, queensland in may would be postponed. impact on administration of sports events generally, the shutdown and return of sporting events followed a basic pattern: for about two months after mid-march 2020, only a handful of events took place at all. they included (as mentioned above) some association football leagues and horse racing, as well as professional table tennis from russia and cornhole competitions in the u.s. also taking place were the 2020 nfl draft and 2020 wnba draft. once sports leagues phased back in, spectators were banned in most instances. the pga tour, nascar, and indycar allowed residents with residences on venues as spectators from their residential property. in addition, athletes faced rigorous health and safety protocols (including constant testing) and venue access restrictions, and news media access was limited. television and radio commentators either called games on-site from facilities remodeled for social distancing (mostly with plexiglas barriers), remotely from studio locations, or remotely from their private residences using technology such as zoom, microsoft teams, or cisco webex. after a certain period of time - and depending on the jurisdictions in which they operated - limited numbers of fans were allowed back into venues. talladega superspeedway on 20 june 2020 was the first to allow paid spectators, as campers were allowed to attend support races, followed by limited grandstands for the feature event. the texas rangers were the first major-league pro sports team in north america to allow for full attendance, at the start of their 2021 season. the 2021 coca-cola 600 at charlotte motor speedway was the first top-level motorsport event to allow full spectator capacity. on 3 june 2021, the u.s. women's open at the olympic club in san francisco was the first top-flight women's golf tournament to allow fans since the pandemic was declared, even as the lpga tour had still not finalized plans for attendance at any of its organized events. as more vaccinations occurred, sports organizations began to relax their health and safety protocols. for example, nascar team members and pit-road media reporters were no longer required to wear face coverings (in most instances) as of the inaugural race weekend at circuit of the americas; they were also not tested for the virus as often as before. the same policy changes took effect for various teams in other sports, as long as a certain percentage of personnel were fully vaccinated. in north american sports leagues with teams in canada and the united states, some canadian teams have adopted a practice of not taking flights directly into the united states when playing away games in u.s. cities, due to its requirements for all incoming international air passengers to be tested for covid-19 on arrival. as this does not apply to land crossings, teams will usually travel by bus to the closest u.s. city to the border with an airport, and then take a domestic flight. for example, toronto-based teams will travel to buffalo niagara international airport in nearby buffalo, new york. several sanctioning bodies adopted rules changes: the nba announced just before the 2019–20 season restarted in the bubble that any team within 3+1⁄2 games of eighth place in their respective conferences after the seeding games would participate in a one-game playoff to determine the eighth seed. that game was necessary in the western conference, and there the portland trail blazers defeated the memphis grizzlies. for the shortened 2020–21 season, the nba added the play-in tournament, a page–mcintyre system playoff that would be used to determine the seventh and eighth seeds. the play-in format would ultimately be retained for the 2021–22 nba season. major league baseball, in its shortened 2020 season, instituted five major changes, of which these three carried over into 2021: the rule for suspended games implemented since 2008 for postseason games took effect during the regular season. once a game starts, if it is called because of weather, it would resume from point of interruption rather than be scrapped. all doubleheader games were abbreviated from nine scheduled innings to seven (a rule used in amateur play and minor league baseball), if the first game is a makeup of a completely rained out game (not a suspended game), the second game was seven innings. suspended games may be determined on a case-by-case basis (such as tie game in extra innings when suspended). if a game was tied heading into extra innings (10th inning for single games or 8th inning for games as parts of doubleheaders), each new inning began with a runner on second base (a rule in place for international wbsc play). the designated hitter rule was extended to the national league for the first time. the playoff field was expanded from 10 teams to 16, with the wild card game replaced by a round of eight, best-of-three wild card series played between the two wild card qualifiers, three division winners, and three division runners-up in each league. most of these rules were retained for the 2021 season, except for the national league designated hitter and expanded postseason. a new collective bargaining agreement taking effect in the 2022 season removes the suspended game and doubleheader rules, and makes the nl designated hitter rule permanent. fifa increased the number of allowable substitutes for association football games from three to five. impact on sports venue workers the covid-19 pandemic resulted in economic losses for workers who struggled to make a living during these times. throughout the covid-19 pandemic, teams were eager to start playing again, but they needed the support of the workers who provide a comfortable and adequate place for them to play. globally, since the new norm in 2020 is social distancing, the most important step was to figure out how to survive financially, especially for the stadium workers who could not afford the time it takes to stimulate a new bill to address these and provide for these personal issues. the miami heat basketball team has announced that they will be committed to help their stadium workers survive financially by paying them immediately instead of waiting for a check to come in, because the wait would have had a severe financial detrimental effect to each individual worker. heat owner micky arison has announced that he pledged to donate $1 million to provide for the miami community because of the immense impact that covid-19 has had on the financial-compromised community.