Sports and Passion in Times of Coronavirus
The world of sports has faced a series of unexpected events throughout the last century. Up until now, only warlike conflicts on a worldwide scale have caused suspensions of massive sports events like the Olympic Games or World Soccer Cup.
The central topic in the world today is, without a doubt, the Coronavirus (COVID19). World sports have not been exempted from this topic either, as it has gone and affected sports in a way that was unprecedented.
The pandemic emergency that has the planet in suspense affects sports activity like nothing else throughout modern history. It has been suspending tournaments, canceling events, and modifying dates of the main competitions globally.
The COVID19 alert stands as the first global health threat that calls into question the holding of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, scheduled for the last week of July and the first week of August. The sports industry, especially soccer, football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, golf, boxing, athletics, bowling, rugby, softball, etc., had already understood that for its future subsistence they will have to suspend its activities for several months, with inconclusive championships, postponed tournaments and deserted titles.
Sport is not only left without activity, without winners, without records or spectacles, but also without sustenance: money. The almost total stoppage of world sport caused by the coronavirus is on the way to causing irreversible damage to the economy, considering that sports activity generates around 710,000 million dollars per year, almost 1% of world GDP. The question is inevitable: How much does the coronavirus damage the pocket of sports? The calculation is changing every day and experts consider the estimate of some specialists to be “not a huge number”: $100 billion in losses worldwide.
The economic effects of the coronavirus must be measured in three types of impacts. One, the direct impact, which affects clubs, federations, competitions, promoters, TV and sponsorship companies, and individual athletes, who see their business activity altered, without being able to comply contracts and no income from ticket sales. Two, the indirect impact, to service supplying companies such as management, facilities, manufacturers, sports firms, food, security, and others. Three, the induced impact, to contiguous businesses such as restaurants, hotels, transport, tourism, leisure or even reselling.
The virus has infected the sports industry chain with a forced interruption of activity and an uncertain horizon: closed facilities and canceled competitions, TV grills as empty as supermarket shelves, broadcasting rights and advertising contracts in the air, the disappearance of box office revenues, and indirect and peripheral businesses as collateral victims. An unprecedented vertical collapse.
The Green River College community has never experienced a situation like this in the history of the school. Our generation of Gators will certainly value our sports team when the pandemic outbreak becomes a thing of the past. We need to learn that we have one life and we should take advantage of every opportunity to embrace the passion we have for sports.
Photo Cred: Nellis Air Force Base
