Many industries will be affected after the pandemic, let’s take a look at the parameters surrounding the global sports phenomenon. Both professional and amateur.
While this article is being written, we are still in the middle of the global pandemic case, with many countries already in lockdown phase and by consequence many industries affected. Sports, mostly professional, is one of the industries deeply affected. The crisis is financial on the one end and can affect the psychology of all parts involved too. In this analysis we will stand on two parameters: Athletes and industry.
ATHLETES ASPECT
First, the Olympic comittee decided to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games which is a great hit to the global sports movement, athletes and fans. It is not every day a tournament of this magnitude is cancelled. From athlete’s point of view, they now face a very uncertain situation leaving them behind on all their goals and preparation that was taking place for at least 4 years. Yes, these are the elite athletes that were about to compete at the Games and they are a portion only of the overall sports population. But try to understand someone who has been oriented towards a certain goal with a certain timeframe, only to have their goal pulled under their feet and have to wait a whole year. It creates also financial problems with all the pending sponsorships they have for the Olympic Games.
Olympics put aside, there are also national competitions, tournaments, leagues that are being cancelled due to the pandemic. That means they shall lose money because there will be a halt in all kinds of payments since there is no competition. Some countries have officially declared the stop, others still wait. This is not only unrealistic but also dangerous. Assume a country decides to resume action for a given sport. You cannot just say to the athletes “Ok, here you go, start playing.” After this kind of break, the athlete will need at least a month to get back into a shape good enough to not risk injury. I do not see there is a timeframe for that.
Then you have the general halt in planning for next season. There are contracts expiring, teams will have to start planning for next year on what grounds, what budgets, how do players negotiate? This is the time where lawyers and agents will get more action than athletes.
Sports complexes in affected regions are closed. Athletes do not have a place to train thus leading to not being able to practice and develop their skills. Are they going to be the same athlete once they resume action? There is so much you can do in your house, no matter how big a garden one has. Team sports need team interaction for tactical purposes, individual sports need space and gyms fully equipped to meet the needs. Yes, every athlete is filling the quarantine time with exercise, but only at the basic level. There will be a big adaptation time afterwards for everyone.
There is the psychological aspect to it all too. Athletes are personas used to be on stage in front of thousands plus. They know that they have a certain timeframe away when seasons end and are on holiday. Now this timeframe has been imposed on them all of a sudden. There is anticipation in some that the season might resume. Others know it won’t. They are at home, away from their usual place of being, of comfort, not really knowing how to fill up the hours because they haven’t had so much time to kill. There are countries that have imposed a strict curfew where one can’t even go jogging outside. This must be carefully adressed. Also, they are used to be in company of teammates, co-athletes and coaches. Now they lack this connection. Social distancing can be very challenging when imposed suddenly on individuals not used to behave like that.
INDUSTRY ASPECT
The financial aspects of postponing the 2020 Olympic Games are widely discussed and better left out of the current analysis here. A huge blow not only financially but also from the sports enthusiast perspective because they represent a global athletic fiesta.
The whole sports industry has taken a huge hit. No matter the sport or league, or even the part of the world we are dealing with. Season tickets have been sold and now the teams face a challenge: are they going to return money for the remainder of the season that is lost? Are they going to give incentives to ticket holders for next season? Anyway the clubs decide to move, the financial hit will be great. The bigger the organization, the more complex the financial field gets. Sponsors will demand, teams will try to cut losses, there are broadcasting deals, stadium expenses and staff that for now does not have a field to work in. Are they going to get paid? We have seen players’ incentives in the NBA, covering the wages for arena staff, most of which have jobs only throughout the duration of the season. There are families affected. All of this creates a domino effect and we know that professional sports is a multi-billion industry providing jobs and income to a great number of people.
Athletic apparel sales are frozen. People on one hand do not exercise themselves so they do not buy, retail shops are closed for the public. On the other hand there is no motivation. Seasons were coming towards the end with playoffs and finals about to be played. Now that this is not going to happen, sports goods companies, lose a large percentage of the income they would have leaving all in the field affected. We could joke around and put all the beer, pizza and junk food consumption traditionally taking place while watching sports in the equation.
CONCLUSION
From whichever standpoint we choose to look at this situation, one thing is clear: we could be facing the possibility, the whole of the professional sports field, by the time competition is resumed, could be totally different from what we have known up until now.
Because it is a field that by nature is affected by the current protection measures against Covid-19 both in the present and maybe in the future. We don’t know how protective measures will affect stadium attendance, will there be specific guides, exclusions or other, that will change the way we attend sports happenings? Maybe we have to lower our standards regarding records because time will be needed for everyone to bounce back and be on the same level as before. There isn’t a button one can press and pretend this crisis never happened in all levels.
That is something we shall see.
The important thing is to resume play and as we know from sports, things will find solutions as we go. Every challenge is there to make us better and this challenge is maybe one of the biggest, organized sports have ever faced.
We need to stand united for the day after.
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