The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) changed the sports landscape. Tournaments, championships, regular seasons and international events were all canceled.
It began with the Ivy League on March 10. They canceled their men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as well as limiting the amount of spectators allowed at their spring sports events.
This announcement set the scene for a tsunami of postponements and abrupt endings to college and professional athletes’ seasons.
The next day, March 11, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) limited winter championship tournament attendance to essential staff and family only. Later that night, National Basketball Association (NBA) star Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with COVID-19. Minutes after announcing his diagnosis, the NBA suspended the season.
But this was only the beginning.
The New York Post dubbed March 12, 2020 “The day the sports world stopped.”
Starting March 12, an onslaught of suspensions and cancellations ensued including all NCAA athletics, NBA G League, International Basketball Federation (FIBA), La Liga (the top professional division of men’s Spanish soccer), Xtreme Football League (XFL), International Tennis Federation, Major League Soccer (MLS), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB) and more.
This will also be the first time in 75 years that the Kentucky Derby will not be run on the first Saturday of May. Wimbledon is postponed for the first time since World War II and the Masters are also postponed for the first time since being created in 1934.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, this is the first time since the 1994 MLB strike that there will be no MLB/NBA/NHL/NFL games for at least seven consecutive days.
Even the world’s biggest sporting event is affected. The 2020 Olympics, slated to take place in Tokyo from July 24 through August 9, is now postponed until summer 2021.
The ramifications of COVID-19 on sports doesn’t end at the physical competitions.
According to The New York Times article, “The Financial Blow of the Coronavirus on Sports,” athletes themselves are losing money, as well as teams and entire leagues.
The NBA as a whole is losing money from missed television contracts and individual teams don’t have the revenue from ticket sales, concessions and retail. But, the teams also don’t have to pay for travel or having their arenas open at this time.
The men’s and women’s basketball championship tournaments are money-makers for the NCAA. Without this revenue, teams will not get the money they “win” from performing well in the tournament.
The canceled tournament doesn’t affect only the universities involved. The Final Four gives an economic boost to the host city every year. Taxi drivers, small businesses and local restaurants often have more money coming in because of the influx of people. This year, Atlanta was supposed to experience that boom. Now it won’t.
The NHL relies heavily on ticket sales because it doesn’t have a large American television audience and the MLB is having trouble starting up their season at all. Fans may not want to attend games in towns where COVID-19 was originally rampant and gathering restrictions may limit the stadiums at which games can be played.
While it is unknown when the sports scene will be back to normal and what the final ramifications of COVID-19 are on sports, sports teams, leagues and fans alike continue to hope for the best.
For now, sports stations are showing reruns of games, events and competitions.
