By Dave S. Albarado
Sports in the Time of Covid.
As we see our lives have been fundamentally changed by the pandemic, one of the hardest hit industries and perhaps one of the most visible, is sports.
Sporting events is the direct opposite of social distancing. A packed stands is a biological timebomb waiting to explode, considering how virulent and highly contagious Covid 19 is.
As I write this, many sporting events in the country have been cancelled or suspended like college sports, such as the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) or the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has been suspended, and even the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been moved to next summer.
Many sporting leagues in the United States have been cancelled or suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is quite unthinkable to have people in the stands and hope no one gets infected of the virus. Having fans standing close to each other is a huge disaster.
The biggest problem about the suspension of the sporting events is the employment and economic repercussions. The highly-paid athletes are not just the ones affected, moreso, the workers who rely on the conduct of sporting events for their livelihood.
Here, we are talking about the people who sell the popcorn at the game venues, the janitors who are hired per event, the security personnel paid per event, the game officials that are paid each time they officiate a game, the ballboys, the waterboys, the scalpers, and even the transport workers, among others are affected with the suspension of sporting events.
Yet, at this time, the appetite for sports is at a all time low. No one, absolutely no one, would be in the mood to watch sports or engage in sports.
The lockdowns are making hard for athletes to train. With gyms not allowed to operate, the athletes have no recourse but to improvise but they are not getting the right amount of training to maintain their fitness.
It is not only the sports leagues, the athletes, the workers and others are affected, so too are the sports channels which have been struggling for content. Much of the content has been replays of past sporting events or documentaries like the one Netflix is showing about Michael Jordan. It has become too boring for sports fans and it may cause serious mental issues along the way.
The most interesting thing we may see in the future is how sports will adapt with the new normal.
It not a question of why sports should start but a question of how to start sports without causing a biological catastrophe
To restart sports responsibly will be a mammoth undertaking and perhaps saying otherwise would be a folly.
Staging events at this point in time is absolutely risky and may only lead towards a slippery slope that may drag everyone of us towards doomsday.
Restarting sporting events without risks is absolutely impossible right now, yet in the minds of sporting officials and fans, there is a huge pressure to ignore the risks.
Without a doubt, at least with professional sports, profit is a huge motivator in restarting sports everywhere in the world. The sad part is that the team owners are not the ones that are going to face the risks, but the fans and the athletes.
We can try, but restarting sports at a time of the coronavirus where there is no telling whether or not a vaccine is really effective, then we may have to put sports in the backburner and live our lives without the NBA on TV, and watch the Golden State Warriors miss the playoffs because Steph Curry is injured.