The spread of Coronavirus has impacted the staging of sporting events around the world. In general, sports calendars have changed, as countries are advising against public gatherings and shaking of hands to reduce the risks of contamination. The outbreak has claimed a lot of lives and affected economies globally.
In a bid to curb the spread of the virus, Major league baseball, Major league soccer, National Hockey league, National Basketball Association, other professional and amateur leagues across the world have temporarily postponed or canceled events and restricted locker room access. The NBA was the first professional sports league to suspend its season indefinitely after Rudy Gobert tested positive for covid-19.
All over the world, sports is something that a lot of people love and follow, whether or not one is a sports fan. Studies have shown that the self-esteem of sports fans is usually bound up in their team’s performance, hence the hype. Now, as a mass event enterprise, sports cannot occur because of the scare of spreading the virus, and, no games mean no ticket sales and reduced media payment.
Speaking to the Guardian Newspaper on Wednesday, March 25, 2020, Former Green Eagles winger, Adegoke Adelabu, said the postponement and cancellation of sporting events across the world due to the coronavirus outbreak, has killed the ‘main source of joy’ around the globe. He said, “Sport is anything that stimulates your interest to explore your environment with the resultant benefit to your health. With COVID-19, we have abandoned our environment-the sporting arena for one of the deadliest and fastest ‘athletes’ the world has ever seen. The COVID-19 virus moves at the speed that is yet to be determined by any known clock.”
FOOTBALL
On March 13, UEFA postponed the Champions League and Europa League matches. FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation postponed the Asian World Cup qualifying matches in March and June. The African Football Confederation postponed 2 rounds of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers scheduled for March 25-31 and the African Nation’s championship 2020 soccer tournament scheduled for April in Cameroon.
The European football governing body UEFA postponed the Euro 2020 tournament to 2021 on the same day, the South American Football Confederation postponed this year’s Copa America to 2021. The most attended sports competition in Europe, the Russian league was suspended by the Russian Football Union. The Premier League and EFL clubs had made plans to return on April 30th but the continuous global crisis has made any likelihood of football being played impossible.
Former Bayern Munich President, Uli Hoeneb said to Kicker on Thursday, March 26 2020, “the situation is both a danger but also an opportunity”. He believes that transfers beyond 100 million Euros, record deals like Neymar’s 222 million euros will be a thing of the past. He also said “the transfer sums will fall, the sums will change over the next two to three years and not be on the same level as right now’’.
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION (NBA)
The NBA was suspended on March 11, 2020. As at the time, the NBA still had about 259 games left to complete the 2019/2020 regular season. As a result of the cancellations, the estimated combined league gate revenues lost are between $350-450 million. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) also canceled all remaining winter and spring championships, including the popular “March Madness” men’s basketball tournament. The Television and marketing rights for the tournament which is about $867.5 million was lost due to the cancellation. Atlanta, which was to hold the final four Stages of March madness stands to lose about $100 million in areas such as adverts, sponsorship, and ticket sales.
For every game the Los Angeles Lakers do not play, LeBron James stands to lose $400,000, other low-paid minor league baseball players could lose their source of income used to settle personal bills. The effect would also be felt by college field hockey teams who depend on funds from the NCAA basketball tournament to host their seasons.
RACES
The Tokyo Marathon, which usually attracts 300,000 participants, was restricted to just 200 runners on March 1. The London marathon scheduled to take place on April 26 was postponed to October 4. The Paris and Barcelona marathons were also postponed. The Formula One calendar has also been affected by the global spread of the Coronavirus; the Australian Grand Prix and races in Bahrain and Vietnam have been postponed. Due to these, the potential revenue lost from the hosting fees could amount to $602 million.
OLYMPICS
The 2020 edition of the Summer Olympics which was supposed to take place in Tokyo at the end of July 2020 has been moved to 2021. As with any Olympic Games, the financial burden is always on the host nation. For 2020, the cost of hosting the Olympics has already exceeded £10bn, Japan spent $277 million building a new Olympic Stadium in the heart of Tokyo to stage the main track and field events, a total of $13.4 billion has been committed to organizing the event, 11,000 Olympic athletes and 4,400 Paralympic athletes have been training for years for the occasion.
Players of another sporting like Boxing, Horse racing, Aquatics, Cricket, Rugby, Gymnastics, Motorsport, Tennis, Baseball, Golf, etc. that have canceled or postponed due to covid-19 may stand to lose millions collectively since they cannot compete for prize money.
