Closings and Cancellations Following The September 11 Attacks

Cancellations

In an atmosphere reminiscent of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, everyday life in the United States came to a standstill in the days after the September 11 attacks. There was a widespread perception immediately following the attacks that recreational events and sports were not appropriate out of respect for the dead and wounded. For this reason, as well as for reasons of perceived threat associated with large gatherings, many events were postponed or cancelled, including:

Broadway theater shows until September 13 when they resumed with dimmed marquees
Major sporting events cancelled in the North America included:
- Major League Baseball - Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig called off games for one day, extending cancellations for three days, then all games through September 16 were postponed. The games were tacked on to the end of the regular season, delaying the postseason until October 4. This was the third time in MLB history that games were cancelled due to war or national security reasons. Games were cancelled on D-Day and the 1918 season was shortened due to World War I.
- Minor League Baseball. All championship series were cancelled. Teams that had led their respective series were awarded league championships, or teams which were scheduled to play in such series were awarded co-championships.
- The National Football League postponed football games on September 16 and Monday night game the following night. Those games and the playoffs were pushed back at the end of the regular season. Super Bowl XXXVI was then moved to February 3, the first time the game had been played in that month. The following year, Super Bowl XXXVII was held at the end of January, but the Super Bowl was moved back to February (presumably for reasons unrelated to 9/11) the following year and has been held in that month ever since.
- NASCAR postponed the September 16 Winston Cup New Hampshire 300 race at Loudon until November 23. Qualifying for the race was cancelled outright, and the starting grid was based on owner points as of September 10. The IRL Chevy 500 was moved to October 6.
- Division I college football games to be played on September 13 and 15 were called off. This was not an insignificant decision; in 1988, Syracuse University was severely criticized for allowing a basketball game be played hours after 35 of their students were killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Some games were played in early December, others were cancelled. Other games were added as a result of teams being unable to find makeup dates.
- The PGA golf tour cancelled the World Golf Championships at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. This was the first time in five years the PGA cancelled a tournament. In 1996, the PGA Tour cancelled the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am because of weather conditions, and subsequently added a new rule that a tournament would not be official unless 54 holes were played. This event was not made up and purse monies were donated to charities.
- USA Cycling canceled the BMC Software Tour of Houston scheduled for September 16, which was a key event in that year's Pro Cycling Tour, involving elite domestic and international cyclists. The decision was made despite the fact that athletes, staff, and equipment were actively en route to Houston from the inaugural San Francisco Grand Prix, which had been held on September 9, 2001.
- Army Ten-Miler road race at The Pentagon.
- The Canadian Football League scrapped all games for the ensuing week.
The following overseas sports events:
- Games scheduled by UEFA, the European governing body of soccer, that were scheduled for September 12 and 13 were postponed (games had been played on the 11th as the first plane strike took place at 2:46 PM CET).
Voting on September 11 in the City of New York Mayoral Primary Election was halted. Elections in Syracuse, New York and Buffalo, New York were also delayed.
Months after the attacks, events were still impacted, with Blockbuster Entertainment cancelling its Spring 2002 Awards Show and the 2003 Grammy Awards being held at Madison Square Garden instead of Staples Center as planned.
Cartoon Network cancelled Mobile Suit Gundam after the attack as the series focused on war and took an episode of Cowboy Bebop that dealt with terrorist bombings ("Cowboy Funk") out of the Adult Swim lineup for nearly a year afterwards.
The NPR weekly news quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! was not broadcast on September 15.
A number of Jeopardy! episodes were not aired until GSN aired them; one noticeable was an episode did not air at all in its original run, and was not seen at all until it aired on GSN in 2005.
Episode 2 of the first season of The Amazing Race was not aired on the evening of September 12 as scheduled. The rest of the series after the first episode a week before was delayed one week.
The NBC reality series Lost ended up with a truncated run as the second episode of the show was to air on the night of the 11th and subsequently edited down from six to five episodes airing in December 2001, with copious editing done due to the show's finish line being shot at a pre-attacked Statue of Liberty. The program subsequently was canceled.
Rock band Aerosmith canceled three shows originally scheduled for September 11th, 13th, and 15th, all on the Eastern Seaboard, during their Just Push Play Tour. They resumed their tour on September 17 in Atlanta, for gig proposing.
The 2nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards were cancelled. It was supposed to be aired on CBS on September 11. The show was not re-scheduled, but the winners were announced at a press conference on October 30.
An alternate ending of an episode of the show Invader Zim was taken off since it featured a scene where all of New York is destroyed, Nickelodeon acted quickly and changed the ending.
The 2001 Boshears Skyfest was canceled due to closed airspace following the attacks.
Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch canceled its Christmas 2001 issue of A&F Quarterly because the company felt the tone of the publication was not suitable for the mood at that time.