Disaster draft

A disaster draft or contingency draft is a procedure developed by professional sports leagues to rebuild a team's roster if many players are disabled or killed.

Background

Since the advent of modern mass transportation, there have been accidents that have killed every or almost every member of various sports teams, including the 1961 United States figure skating team, 1970 Wichita State University football team, 1970 Marshall University football team, 1977 University of Evansville basketball team, the 1980 United States boxing team, and the Russian 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team. As a result, some professional sports leagues have developed contingency plans should such a disaster occur to one or more of their teams.

The closest that a North American major league team came to experiencing a similar accident was in January 1961, when a DC-3 carrying the Minneapolis Lakers crash-landed in Carroll, Iowa.^[1][2]

Special procedures

An affected team is expected to replace players using the minor leagues and by signing free agents.^[3] Each league, however, has established procedures to decide whether an accident is of sufficient scale to activate contingency plans to help rebuild an affected team's roster, typically involving a special draft.

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball's disaster plan is covered in Rule 29 of its Major League Rules.^[4] The plan is triggered by an event causing the death, dismemberment, or permanent disability of at least five players from a team's active, disabled, or suspended roster during a season (including the playoffs), or at least six players during the off-season. Major League Baseball's commissioner will decide if the disabled club can continue play, in consultation with the MLB Players Association and the club.

The commissioner can hold a restocking draft to allow the disabled club(s) to select as many players as it lost, with the restriction that no more than one player can be selected from any one team. Each of the non-disabled teams makes five players available for the draft taken from its active list (or if during the off-season, from its reserve list), composed of one pitcher, one catcher, one outfielder, and one infielder (the remaining player can be from any position), subject to adjustments by the commissioner based on the players lost by the disabled club(s). If a team has fewer than three eligible catchers, it does not have to provide a catcher to the draft. The players provided must have at least the same amount of service time as the players that were lost, as of August 31 in the previous season, within sixty days (that is, a player's service time must not fall short of a lost player's by more than sixty days). Players with no-trade rights can exercise this right and not be placed in the restocking draft.

The commissioner and players association can also agree upon other appropriate relief for a disabled club.

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association (NBA) contingency plan activates if five or more players on a team "'die or are dismembered.'"^[1][3] A special "Disaster Draft" would be held in which other NBA teams could only protect five players,^[1][5] so that quality sixth men would be available. No more than one player would be drafted from a team.^[3]

National Football League

The National Football League (NFL)'s contingency plan provides for both a "near-disaster" and a "disaster."^[1][3] A "near-disaster" is defined as fewer than 15 players on a team being disabled, and a "disaster" is 15 or more.^[1][5][5]

No special draft would be held for a "near-disaster"; the team would instead get preferential rights on any waivers until the end of the season.^[6][5] If a quarterback is among the fewer than 15 lost, the team would be able to draft up to two^[3] quarterbacks from all NFL teams with three available. Each team would be able to protect two, and the drafted quarterbacks would return to their original teams in the following season.^[6]

For a "disaster," the Commissioner would determine whether to cancel the team's schedule for the season.^[6] If the team's season is canceled, the team would have the first pick in the next regular draft;^[1][6][5] a special draft would also be held in which each team would be able to protect 32 players. If not canceled, the "near-disaster" procedures would be used.^[1][3][5]

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League (NHL) contingency plan activates if five or more players^[1][5] on a team "are killed or disabled."^[3] The team would select players from other NHL teams, paying with funds from a special insurance fund. Once its roster has one goaltender and 14 other players, a special draft involving the teams unaffected by the earlier selection could be held, with each team able to protect one goaltender and 10 other players.^[1][5]

Major League Soccer

Within its roster regulations, Major League Soccer has what it refers to as an "extreme hardship" provision, which can be used if "a team has less than 15 available players." However, this is a mechanism intended to be used on a "game-by-game basis," and any contingency plans that may exist for a disaster draft scenario are not public.^[7]

Kontinental Hockey League

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) contingency plan was implemented after the 2011 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl plane crash that killed the entire traveling roster on the team. In the policy, each team makes three players eligible for the disaster draft, with the team that suffered the disaster being able to call up five players from its farm teams. There is no mention of a goaltender minimum for the draft is mentioned, unlike the NFL disaster draft on quarterbacks or NHL disaster draft on goaltenders, or a mention of a team being able to surrender only one player, unlike other leagues, in the draft.^[8] The afflicted team will have a spot in the draft lottery, thus guaranteeing that the team will pick at least as high as 4th overall in the next KHL Junior Draft and it will also be able to protect any player they want for the next five entry drafts.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Drehs, Wayne. "'God forbid it should ever be needed'." ESPN.com, 10 April 2001.
2. ^ Vecsey, Peter. 1960 LAKERS WILL NEVER FORGET PLANE CRASH THAT CHANGED THEIR LIVES." New York Post, 8 February 2009.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Eskenazi, Gerald. "The Plans No One Wants to Use." The New York Times, 22 May 1992.
4. ^ Major League Baseball (2008). "Major League Rules (2008)" (PDF). The Biz of Baseball. http://bizofbaseball.com/docs/MajorLeagueRules-2008.pdf. Retrieved 2011-09-09. 
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Mizell, Hubert (2001-09-23). "Several pro teams have airline disaster plans in place". St. Petersburg Times. http://www.sptimes.com/News/092301/Columns/Several_pro_teams_hav.shtml. Retrieved 2010-09-14. 
6. ^ ^{a b c d} O'Keeffee, Michael. "JUST PLANE SCARY Oklahoma State crash causes high anxiety." New York Daily News, 4 February 2001.
7. ^ http://www.mlssoccer.com/2011-mls-roster-rules
8. ^ National Post, "KHL delays games, but season will go on for Lokomotiv", Peter Leonard, 8 September 2011