Sports to lose at least $12 billion to COVID-19

On March 12, the sports world stopped. The NCAA Tournament was canceled. The NBA, NHL, MLS and PGA all suspended play. MLB pushed back Opening Day indefinitely.

The unthinkable occurrence in sports caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will result in a loss of at least $12 billion across the country — and more than double if college football and the NFL are canceled, too — according to an ESPN analysis. The staggering figure represents the impact on everyone from owners to stadium employees to parents traveling for youth sports.

According to the analysis, about 3 million jobs in the country are reliant on sports.

“As an economist, you stand back, you look at the carnage that’s taking place — dumbfounded, awestruck, mind-numbing,” Patrick Rishe, who directs the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis, told ESPN.com. “All of those phrases, they’re all relevant because we just have never seen anything on this scale.”

The analysis estimates that fans’ purchases on professional sports accounts for $3.25 billion and more than $370 million in wages have been lost by arena employees, many of whom are now unemployed. While $2.2 billion in TV revenue is lost, the study found tourism related to youth sports represents even more money that will evaporate ($2.4 billion).

The ultimate total figure will likely be even higher since the analysis did not include projected losses from NASCAR, golf, tennis and sports gambling, as well as various minor leagues.

Unlike Wimbledon (canceled) and the Olympics (postponed), major professional American leagues do not have comprehensive insurance policies for the pandemic, reportedly because such a situation was unfathomable.

“It’s like hell began freezing over,” one sports executive told ESPN.

Football maintains hope it won’t be disrupted later in the calendar, but no sport is safe. Unlike uberprofitable NFL teams, college athletic departments are in a precarious position. Since football accounts for nearly half of all athletic department budgets — the Power 5 teams bring in almost $4 billion in revenue — several lower-profile sports teams will certainly be eliminated from every campus in the country.

“If [college] football goes down, that’s just a killer,” said Rick Gentile, who works in Big East broadcasting. “I don’t know how schools recover from that, God only knows.You could make a prediction, go crazy. The Pac-12 disbands? I’m making it up, but who knows?”

Youth sports face a similar problem. This week, the Little League World Series was canceled. Countless other organizations and facilities may struggle to stay afloat without receiving any revenue.

“Youth sports will not be the same following this pandemic,” the letter stated.

“It’s potentially pretty devastating if [the pandemic] keeps going on,” said National Sports Center executive director Todd Johnson, who planned on running the country’s largest amateur soccer tournament. “My goal is to get us through the summer.”