Published on July 23, 2020
No matter what season it is, whether it is Fall, Winter, Spring, or Summer, there is one constant that is on mostly everyone's minds - Sports!
While in quarantine, we all missed the crack of a bat, the squeaking of basketball shoes on the hardwood, the swish of the ball going through the hoop, the roar of the crowd after the home team scores a much needed and clutch touchdown. We all just miss "normal life" in general. But sports are a big part in our everyday lives and a big part of our world.
The thing about sports that we love so much is that they bring out the competitive side in all of us. Whether you're the one playing the game or just cheering your team on, you feel that competitive spirit. You feel engaged as your team takes the field or court. You feel tense when it is a close game. Whether it is a regular season game or even a deciding game 7, you feel engaged and you feel tense when the game is close. We miss the triumphs of victory, and the agony of defeat.
That's just another thing. We all missed how sports make us feel. We missed that energy.
All of that at the moment did seem like a distant memory. It was gut-wrenching and heartbreaking when the NBA decided to suspend its season in March. However, it was the right thing to do. Many wondered when or if the league would ever resume the season. When it was a month after the the NBA season was suspended, it felt like a year. With a lot still up in the air, the lack of sports left many fans feeling at a loss.
We cannot forget another fairly significant sporting event affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic - The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed until next year in the summer of 2021. It was a wise decision to postpone the Summer Olympics games until 2021 for a variety of reasons. The main one of course being the COVID-19 Pandemic as well as the fact that the athletes will be traveling from all over the world from different countries that have a significant amount of cases of the virus.
The grueling and rigorous training that an Olympic athlete goes through in order to prepare for the games is second to none. Some athletes, such as Michael Phelps and Simone Biles (two of the most decorated Olympians of all time), make sure to train for at least 10,000 hours total before the upcoming Olympic Games. With this, they still find time for eating, rest and recovery, and self care. Many Olympians training for the now postponed 2020 Summer Olympics reacted well to the news of the games' postponement, saying that it was the right choice and they could use the time to improve more. The unsung tragedy comes for those athletes whose time is running out to attain Olympic glory. Training schedules are critically timed for athletes to peak at the right time. The delay of another year could cost them their Olympic dream.
It has not just been professional athletes affected by the virus, but also college and high school athletes as well. With colleges and high schools all across the country cancelling their spring sports seasons as well as the March Madness NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament being cancelled, many student athletes have been robbed of moments and memories that they would remember for the rest of their lives. Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior student athletes would lose a season of their sports careers while Senior student athletes would lose their final seasons. Either way, it's a season they will never get back and loaded with memories that they were robbed of. The memories of a high school athlete through their sports seasons are some of the most fondest that they will look back on.
The economic impact that COVID-19 is having on the sports world is very present as well. Just as present as the social impact described. It has been described as a "low blow" with U.S. Sports losing up to $92.6K every minute (Burrow). The major sports leagues themselves are suffering economically as well. With each fan-less game the MLB will play, the league will lose $640K. The economic impact of the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics was also very substantial. Had the Olympics taken place this year, the games were projected to bring in $186.14 billion for the Tokyo economy and $297.82 billion for the Japanese economy (Roussel). Sponsors for the games have also been affected by the postponement of the Olympics with the postponement causing them to lose over $1.8 billion. At the start of the shutdown of sports, it was projected that the sports industry could lose $12.3 billion by mid-June. Jobs in sports have been impacted as well with 1.3 million sports jobs being furloughed, reduced, or erased. The majority of workers affected were millennial workers around the ages of 25-34 (Burrow). New York City and Los Angeles are likely to lose the most sports jobs because of this and therefore there will be a spike in sports unemployment in those cities.
With the NBA coming back on July 30th and running scrimmages beforehand, the NHL announcing their return, and the MLB and MLBPA finally coming to an agreement and starting the season towards the end of July and having summer camps, we will finally feel that joy, that suspense, that tensity, that feeling of defeat, and that feeling of success and victory with our favorite teams once again. It will be some time before everything is back to the way it once was, but for now, we must remain strong and patient. As ESPN said, "We are playing for a different kind of team right now". That team is the millions of healthcare workers and essential workers that work day and night in order to keep our country running and strong. For that, we are endlessly grateful.
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