Welcome to the 2020s: Predicting the next decade of sports and entertainment

With a new decade upon us, we do our best to make some predictions – serious and not – about where sports and entertainment will go in the 2020s.

The 2010s delivered some things we thought we’d never see. The Cubs finally won a World Series and we got another trilogy of Star Wars movies. LeBron and the Cavs brought a title to Cleveland and we got a Star Wars TV show with a new, cuter Yoda.

We’ve passed the future dates predicted for us in Back To The Future and Bladerunner (we even got a new Bladerunner!) without figuring out hoverboards (these don’t count). But like Mark McGwire, we’re not here to talk about the past. Instead, let’s shake off the holiday hangover and look ahead to the 2020s, a new decade of possibilities.

Here are the FanSided staff’s predictions for where sports and entertainment will go in the next 10 years:

Entertainment

• Marvel will have another billion-dollar year with Black Widow and Eternals.
• Disney+ will create its first Emmy or Oscar-worthy original.
• Star Wars will tease its post-Skywalker saga universe.
• Harry Potter will be rebooted as a TV series…on The CW.
• The divide between franchise and everything else will deepen.
• Netflix will roll out ads.
• Reality TV will own network TV and networks will move scripted content exclusively to streaming, before…
• The streaming bubble will burst and cable — or at least, bundling — will rise again.
• VHS will have a vinyl moment on college campuses.
• There will be an openly bisexual or sexually fluid Bachelor or Bachelorette.
• The Academy will remember women direct movies too (maybe).
• TikTok will infiltrate the Oscars.
• Netflix will earn an Oscar for Best Picture.
• Netflix will release a six-hour feature with chapter breaks and call it a movie.
• Netflix will release a six-hour feature with chapter breaks and call it a TV show.
• De-aging technology will be banned.
• Digital fur technology will be banned.

— Shea Corrigan and Mia Johnson

Baseball

• The Hall of Fame softens on known steroid users. And Curt Schilling gets in despite his politics.
• The Dodgers win a World Series, and then another one.
• Mike Trout eventually wins a World Series, and as his career winds down he’s in the conversation for best player of all time.
• The National League adopts the DH.
• Balls and strikes are turned over to a video system, aka finally Robot Umps.
• MLB expands to Mexico and goes back to Montreal.
• The ball is un-juiced, then juiced again, on and on.
• MLB will continue tweaking rules to try to speed up the game, to minimal effect.
• A woman breaks into minor league baseball for the first time, but doesn’t make it to the majors.
• Bat flips eventually cause – slightly – less controversy (hopefully).

— John Wilkinson

Basketball

• Luka Doncic will win 4 MVP awards and multiple championships.
• The NBA will adopt a midseason tournament.
• Free agency will come before the NBA Draft.
• The Seattle SuperSonics will return.
• LeBron James retires as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
• Stephen Curry retires owning every relevant 3-point record.

— Gerald Bourguet

College Sports

• Nick Saban retires after winning his ninth national championship
• Dabo Swinney leaves Clemson after winning five national championships to succeed Saban at his alma mater
• Arch Manning, nephew of Peyton and Eli, breaks all of Joe Burrow’s records, winning the Heisman and leading LSU to a national title
• College Football Playoff expands to eight teams
• Jim Harbaugh still hasn’t beaten Ohio State
• Texas is still not back
• USC hires former Redskins coach Urban Meyer
• College basketball is canceled when the top recruits skip the bagman and classes to take money from the G-league and international leagues

— Patrick Schmidt

Football

• The NFL completely revamps its officiating process.
• Roger Goodell steps down and everyone immediately turns on the next commissioner.
• Patrick Mahomes wins two more MVPs and at least one Super Bowl (please…).
• NFL expands into London permanently with another franchise.
• The catch rule remains broken and infuriates fans.
• Bill Belichick finally retires, but only after Tom Brady leaves.
• The Chargers move back to San Diego after failing in Los Angeles.

— Matt Verdarame

Hockey

• Alex Ovechkin will surpass Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer.
• The NHL will go back to the Olympics in 2022.
• Houston will end up with a relocated hockey team.
• Gary Bettman will retire from his position as commissioner of the NHL.
• The NHL will extend 3-on-3 overtime to 10 minutes instead of five.
• Read a deeper dive on each prediction here.

— Mary Clarke

MMA

• Maycee Barber will be a UFC champion, but she won’t break the record.
• Conor McGregor will start his own boxing promotion.
• Jon Jones will be fighting another decade, at least.
• The UFC women’s featherweight division won’t exist.

— Amy Kaplan

Soccer

• Liverpool win the Premier League for the first time in 30 years (c’mon we’ve got to start with a tap-in).
• Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo retire, but the GOAT debate never ends.
• Kylian Mbappe becomes the consensus best player in the world.
• The offside rule is re-written to exist in the world of VAR.
• England win a major tournament on both the men’s and women’s side.
• The U.S. women’s national team wins the 2020 Olympics, making the USWNT the first team to go back-to-back with Women’s World Cup and Olympic titles in consecutive years.
• The U.S. men’s national team qualifies for the 2022 World Cup. Yes, this qualifies as a bold prediction now.
• Christian Pulisic moves to Real Madrid.
• La Liga plays a league match in the United States.
• MLS implements an in-house form of promotion and relegation as expansion continues. Most people still won’t be happy with it.
• 10 more soccer predictions and a deeper dive into some of these ones here.

— John Wilkinson