American sports have lost more than $12 billion due to the coronavirus epidemic, along with the loss of thousands of jobs, ESPN announced.
However, it is feared that these numbers could double if the interrupted seasons in the professional and university leagues do not resume.
Patrick Richet, who directs the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis, examined publicly available data to assess the potential impact of the suspension on the major professional leagues, the NCAA and youth sports.
Labor market analytics company EMSI conducted an assessment of sports-related jobs, and in addition, ESPN interviewed economists, public officials, sports officials, concessionaires, tour operators and others to assess the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on sports at all levels.
According to the latest data, the cessation of sports competitions in the US will wipe out at least 12 billion dollars in revenue and hundreds of thousands of jobs. Professional sports have so far lost 5.5 billion, university sports about 3.9 billion, and sports tourism about 2,4 billion dollars.
There are roughly three million jobs in 524 occupations in the U.S. that depend on sports, according to an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's everyone, from coaches to security guards and referees. How many of these people are now out of work is not yet entirely clear, but the effect on professional sports is already dramatic. Hundreds of thousands of people were laid off.
A survey commissioned by the Sports Events & Tourism Association, which represents the sports travel industry, found that nearly 700.000 athletes were unable to attend scheduled events in March alone, costing organizers more than $700 million.
"Right now, people are still in shock," said Al Kidd, president of the association.
Hundreds of organizations, including travel sports companies, have petitioned Congress asking for an $8,5 billion fund to help sports "stabilize the industry and invest in recovery."
The $12 billion figure is feared to be conservative in more ways than one. It does not include projected losses from NASCAR, golf, tennis and several minor sports. These figures also do not include losses in the outdoor recreation industry, including hunting, skiing, recreational golf, tennis and fishing.
"As an economist, you can stand back and just watch what kind of disaster is happening. All the phrases are relevant because we have simply never seen anything like this," Riše said.
The NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL and other leagues are developing plans to save what they can, including locking players in some sort of 'sterilized biosphere'. That strategy would not only bring back sports, but also help leagues collect billions of dollars in TV rights fees, the biggest driver of sports revenue.
However, at this point, no one has any idea what will happen in the future.
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