How Will COVID-19 Change Sports?
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the response to COVID-19 had a devastating impact on the global economy. Hundreds of millions find themselves out of work. Unfortunately, for many industries, dark days are still ahead.
Sports is often thought of the realm of the rich and famous. Naturally, these days, athletes tend to be millionaires while owners are billionaires. That said, there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are not wealthy yet work within sports organizations.
All sports are being impacted by the lockdowns. The ones that are being played have no (or few) fans. This puts tremendous pressure on revenues. In Major League Baseball (MLB), ticket revenue amounts to about 40% of the incoming monies.
Since 2020, saw a limited season of 60 games, all which were played without fans, teams took a major hit. Estimates are that MLB lost more than $3 billion over the previous year. That is a lot of cheddar.
Of course, much of the money that all major organizations have coming in is derived from television contracts. Networks pay billions for the right to broadcast different leagues around the world.
Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Nevertheless, the hit is being felt. Today, the Philadelphia Phillies announced they are laying off 80 front office personnel. This is a move in response to the fact that organization lost $145 million in 2020.
According Meghan Montemurro of the Athletic, the Phillies are eliminating more than 80 positions from their front office through a series of buyouts and layoffs.
Montemurro obtained an email that was sent out to all Phillies employees Wednesday afternoon which announced the cut of front office positions from both the business and baseball side of their operations. The email stated that the departing employees had more than 1,100 combined years of service with the Phillies.
Prior to these cuts, the Athletic notes that the Phillies had around 450 full-time employees, without including on-field and support staff at the team’s Dominican Republic academy. Team president Andy MacPhail cites over $145 million in losses during the 2020 season in his email, while projecting similar losses for the upcoming season.
Another part of the equation is the broadcast rights. How long will television networks support these leagues with falling viewership. In the United States, all the major leagues saw their ratings drop.
At the same time, the networks are encountering their own issues. ESPN, which is owned by Disney, had to lay off more than 500 employees. This is in response to the $1 billion loss the parent company took in the 3rd quarter.
Thus far, in professional sports, the impact hasn't been felt by the athletes themselves. This all could be changing in the future if these leagues continue to lose money in numbers like the Phillies. It doesn't matter how rich one is, he or she is not about to keep bleeding to the tune of $150 million a year.
That is not how rich people run their businesses.
Of course, this is not an isolated case. Every sport is seeing similar results. Therefore, another season like 2020 could mean that some teams start to look to bankruptcy.
Add to this the fact that people have many more options than they did decades ago. Many sports leagues were having issues attracting younger fans. Instead, many of those, if they were interested in sports, tended towards virtual leagues and eSports.
How will all this impact the future of sports?
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