Changing the play
When sports resume in the post-pandemic world, here’s hoping they change for the better
When the pandemic passes, one way in which we will measure the return of normalcy is the resumption of sports. But will they be sports as we know them? Going by just the economic fallout , there seems little doubt that things will change, and those shifts will be massive. Some of them, hopefully, may be for the good. There are four changes on my wish list.
The mega multi-sport event finds some balance
The cost of hosting multi-sport events like the Olympics has long been a source of controversy and outrage—the tally for Rio 2016 exceeded $20 billion (the revenue generated was $5.7b) and left a legacy of stadiums and complexes that are of no use anymore. When did the Olympics get so big? In 1936, when Hitler’s Germany wanted to use the Games as a show of power. It was then that the torch relay was invented, that a city was first transformed just for the Games, and the first Olympic behemoth was built—the 100,000-seater Olympiastadion. Soon after, the war broke out and the next two Games were cancelled. When they were held in 1948, there was self-conscious frugality, and that edition became known as the “austerity games”. This year, the Games have been postponed. When they resume, perhaps the edition could be a little more like 1948, and a little less like 1936. There’s a line of thinking that the post-pandemic world will simply not allow for any event that brings together thousands of people. Perhaps that’s bleak; but surely the Olympics cannot continue with such little regard for the destruction— both economic and environmental—that it will leave behind.
Footballers’ wages
Like the big business of mega games, football wages have risen astronomically in the last decade. Lionel Messi was the highest-paid footballer in 2010 when he earned around $45 million a year (adjusted for inflation, $45 million in 2010 is equal to $53.5 million in 2020). Messi is still the highest-paid footballer in the world, but now he earns $80 million. In 2000, the record for the highest transfer fee belonged to Louis Figo, at roughly $40 million (adjusted for inflation, $47.5 million in 2020). Now, the record stands at $263 million, paid by French club PSG for Neymar in 2017. This has little to do with the players (or their worth) and everything to do with the sport becoming a plaything of the very rich. Does football need some sense of fiscal balance? No doubt. Was the sport going to self-regulate? Probably not. Which brings us to the pandemic, and the third point.
The football fan
As the game grew into a dizzying money-spinner, it locked out the average fan from the stadium. Ticket prices are prohibitive in most of Europe, except in Germany, where the game continues to hold fans in high regard. Hopefully, football will become a little more deserving of its exalted status as the people’s game and watching it live in stadiums will become more affordable for fans when social distancing ends.
Women’s sports
The 2019 women’s football world cup, this year’s women’s T20 world cup—both were examples of the steep gender imbalance in sport beginning to level out. Just before sports came to a standstill, there was a rising interest in the women’s game—from the World Cup-winning US captain Megan Rapinoe’s powerful, spunky personality on and off the field, to Shafali Varma’s explosive batting—some of the finest sporting narratives of the last few months belonged to women. When sports resume, here’s hoping that wave of interest comes back stronger, higher, and taller, and crashes right through the gender barrier.