Jerry Jones, Mark Cuban, More Hold Call with President Trump About Sports Hiatus

President Donald Trump held a conference call with a number of team owners, league commissioners and influential figures across professional sports Wednesday.

The call included Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys owner), Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks owner), Robert Kraft (New England Patriots owner), Adam Silver (NBA commissioner), Rob Manfred (MLB commissioner), Gary Bettman (NHL commissioner), Roger Goodell (NFL commissioner) and Dana White (UFC president), among others.

The call was regarding the hiatus of professional sports leagues around the country because of the COVID-19 pandemic and how resuming play might be undertaken given social-distancing guidelines in effect and the lack of widespread testing or a vaccine.

While Trump wants the United States to reopen by the end of the month, per Letitia Stein and Brett Murphy of USA Today—which presumably includes resuming professional sports—a number of factors could make that unrealistic.

Per that report, medical experts "fear a chaotic next chapter, in which still-inadequate testing levels could contribute to waves of disease crashing over America."

Additionally, "in conversations with a dozen scientists, USA Today found that states are falling short of the measures laid out by the CDC."

Those states will also have a say in whether live sports—even without fans in attendance—are allowed to resume.

California, for instance, has an indefinite stay-at-home order in place. While Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a guide for eventually easing back those restrictions, he also noted that everyday life in the state wouldn't just snap back to normal once the state's plan was modified.

"There's no light switch here. It's more like a dimmer," he said at a news conference Tuesday. "Normal, it will not be until we have herd immunity and a vaccine. You may be having dinner with the waiter wearing gloves and maybe a face mask...where your temperature is checked before walking in. These are likely scenarios."

He also said it was unlikely the state would allow mass gatherings until September.

"The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and we get to a vaccine," he said. "Large-scale events that bring in hundreds, thousands [or even] 10s of thousands of strangers across every conceivable difference—health and otherwise—is not in the cards based upon our current guidelines and current expectations."

While that is just one state, others very well could come to the same conclusion. Given the severity of the outbreak in New York, for instance—the state's 11,586 reported deaths to the coronavirus is more than any other country outside of the United States except for Italy (21,645), Spain (18,812), France (17,167) and the United Kingdom (12,868), per CNN.com—it's hard to imagine any sports being hosted in that state with fans filling the stands any time soon.

That could force professional sports leagues to consider unique measures, such as having areas not as affected by COVID-19 serve as temporary hosts for organizations from states with more severe outbreaks. It's also possible that leagues will consider abbreviated seasons or even canceling the remainder of in-progress seasons.

For the sporting world, that means much remains up in the air during this unprecedented time.