Experienced in bartending patter, Prien reminded the three of us on the stools that there are only two recession-proof businesses: bars and crematories.

“We’ll take ‘sports’ off the sign out front and just be the ‘Final Final Bar,’” he joked.

But these are serious times, even without the fear of becoming sick. Whole industries rely on sports. Forget the professional athletes or the leisure-seeking schlubs who root for them.

Consider the people in between — the arena workers and vendors, the ushers and parking attendants, the people holding cameras and running wire, the back-office team employees, the businesses that huddle in the shadows of the stadiums.

The Coronavirus Outbreak Sports and the Virus Updated Sept. 18, 2020 Here’s what’s happening as the world of sports slowly comes back to life: One of Louisiana’s most successful high school football coaches retired, concerned that his blood cancer made him vulnerable to Covid-19. At least 30 high school and club coaches have died of the coronavirus. With football returning, Big Ten cities are bracing for more outbreaks. Although the games will be played without spectators in the stadiums, some officials are concerned they will lead to more off-campus gatherings that could spread the virus. Fans can debate whether this season’s baseball records really count. But M.L.B.’s official historian insists the achievements are as real as any other.



For fans, the void might be time. Theirs might be money.

At the Final Final, the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament, lasting nearly three weeks, is a huge part of the annual business. But the Final Final will soldier on.

The place was open that October day in 1989, when an earthquake hit just before a World Series game between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s, and the place stayed open as the Marina District outside the doors burned. It was open after 9/11, when sports went on a dutiful hiatus, then came back repurposed as a show of resilience and community.

And it will stay open now, maybe staffed less than expected during the madness of March. The popcorn machine in the corner — you have to try the popcorn, said a guy who has been hanging around the place for 20 years, because it’s legendary, like the popcorn at the best movie theaters — will sit idle.

You don’t want to infect people with coronavirus through popcorn.

“Why don’t you just move the machine behind the bar and hand it out?” the man asked Prien.