On Nov 16 2020, the 27-year old Netherlands cricketer, Paul van Meekeren

tweeted,
“Should’ve been playing cricket today now, I’m delivering Uber eats to get through
the winter months!! Funny how things change hahahah keep smiling people.”

2020 was supposed to the year for sports. Tokyo Olympics,F1 grand prix,Wimbeldon
,UEFA 2020, Tour de France were all set to take the sporting world to grand new
heights. Cancelled matches, Postponed tournaments and the growing turmoil had hit
the so called recession proof industry real hard. The games business was one of the
quickest extending enterprises before the Covid pandemic caused a significant
general wellbeing emergency and the closing down on every single public occasion.
The all out estimation of the whole games industry is 756 billion dollars (an
increment of half since 2011). This direction was relied upon to accomplish new
statures until the Covid pandemic broke lose. Presently the games business is going
through a significant unrest and monetary emergency.

Sports is a spectator driven industry. There are three essential income hotspots
for a live game: (I) broadcasting income; (ii) promoting and sponsorship
income; and (iii) coordinate day income for example ticket deals. These three
income hotspots for the games business dried out since no live occasions
occurred because of the forced lockdown and limitations. Further, the games
business involves not simply the live occasions which are broadcast and
communicated, yet additionally all the organizations related or subject to the
event of such live occasions. The related organizations incorporate the creation
of live occasions, arena rentals, accommodation, dream sports and wagering,
stock and outdoor supplies, and so forth, all of which have endured gigantic
misfortunes. A few organizations depend on supporting the occasions to come
into public eye and lift their deals. Sports clubs and event organisers are not the
only ones suffering from the situation. Even the small scale and medium
businesses which directly or indirectly adds to the successful running of the
leagues, matches or the tournament have been adversely affected.

According to a report published by The Behind Sports,

The British sports industry will see a £700Mn shortfall in

revenues this year ● The total loss of revenue in the
USA pro sports is to the tune of $12 Bn, of which NFL
alone will see a shortfall of $ 4Bn in 2020-21 
● The European Club Association (ECA) for football
predicts a loss of €3.6 Bn ● Most IPL Franchises have
seen 40% lower sponsorships and deals this year ● The
$300 Mn sports equipment industry in Jalandhar will see
a 30-40% degrowth this year.

This resulted in many major clubs sinking in debt with

Tottenham Hotspurs, a popular English football club
making headlines after requesting for a loan of 175
million pounds to repay their earlier loans. Introduction
of cost reduction, pay cuts, offloading the staff members
by clubs and teams were making headlines everyday.

As the world starts to unlock, the organisers are coming

up with the best they can to minimise their losses.
guidelines are being formulated y the respective
governing bodies in cooperation with the government to
help resume sports in a safe, secure and systematic
manner. Bio-bubble is one such method used with the
help of which the Indian Premier league,India tour of
Australian have been successfully conducted. A bio-
bubble is a safe and secure environment isolated from
the outside world to minimise the risk of covid-19
infection. It permits only authorised sports persons,
support staff and match officials to enter the protected
area after testing negative.

However,as the saying goes, “ Necessity is the mother

of invention”, sports is now getting a digital makeover
giving rise to a buzzword, Phygital. ‘Phy’ for physical
and ‘gital’ for digital.
While it was a battle for the traditional sports coming up
with digital innovations,the E-sports industry skyrocketed
during the period.

At the beginning of 2020,no athlete/fan/organiser would

have imagined that match, let alone a tournament in
their entirety, will be held behind closed doors, in empty
stadiums and closed atmospheres, however the
pandemic brought the sporting world to a standstill. “In
India, sports budget saw a cut of Rs 230.78 crore in the
Budget session of 2021-22, including the highest
reduction of    Rs 232.71 crore in the government’s
flagship programme,khelo india.” (Budget Session 2021-
22).
Putting it in the words of Veteran South African
administrator and former ICC chief executive Haroon
Lorgat, the pandemic would mean a “battle for survival for
weaker nations” in the industry of sports.

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/inside-story/2020/5/7/
how-is-coronavirus-affecting-the-sport-industry
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/what-is-bio-
bubble/article32686348.ece
heweek.in/news/sports/2020/04/03/How-the-COVID-19-
outbreak-is-affecting-the-sports-industry-in-India-and-how-
we-are-contributing-to-it.html
https://theconversation.com/cancelled-matches-and-
growing-turmoil-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-the-sports-
industry-133472