The Coronavirus Doesn’t Care When Sports Come Back
While several leaders, including President Trump, have embraced the idea of games broadcast live from a quarantined environment, most concede that even that would pose large challenges. And the prospect of fans actually going to a game — an activity Americans spend $19 billion on per year, according to the professional services network PwC — is far off in the future, perhaps even 2021.
The outlook for leisure spending is already bleak as jobs are lost at a pace unseen since the Great Depression — 22 million people have filed unemployment claims in the past month. And a recent Seton Hall University poll showed that Americans, a majority of whom follow sports closely, are not eager to risk their health to attend games. Of the respondents, 72 percent said they would not go to arenas or stadiums if leagues resumed play before the development of a coronavirus vaccine — something scientists say is at least a year away.
Rick Painter, an Air Force veteran who lives in Viera, Fla., said he had spent $3,500 on two tickets for an April 5 game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics, with plans to buy a jersey of the Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo and to sit behind the team’s bench. Now, Ticketmaster has his money and is not giving refunds, because the games have been postponed but not technically canceled.
“So, you asked me if I’m desperate for sports to come back. Part of me is, ‘Hell no, they’re a bunch of whining babies,’” Mr. Painter, 58, said. “Part of me is, ‘Hell yeah, I miss sports.’ Part of me is, ‘What about my $3,500?’”
David Stanley, 59, of Santa Monica, Calif., said he wanted to see the Los Angeles Rams in person again, but not before the outbreak had passed. “It will be very strange with no crowds at the games,” he said of joining a potential TV-only audience for the N.F.L. team he has loved since the 1980s. “But these are weird times, so what’s normal anymore?”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/19/sports/coronavirus-sports-economy.html