Impact in the billions

What’s the financial impact of the unilateral cancellation of sports nationwide? It’s a staggering $12 billion, according to an analysis by ESPN. "As an economist, you stand back, you look at the carnage that's taking place — dumbfounded, awestruck, mind-numbing," as Patrick Rishe, who directs the sports business program at Washington University in St. Louis, told ESPN. "All of those phrases, they're all relevant because we just have never seen anything on this scale." The big ticket item is, as one might expect, the loss of fan spending on professional sports, the loss of which negates $3.25 billion from industry coffers. Next on the chopping block is youth sports tourism — the traveling teams and their retinues who spend so much on hotels and food and uniforms. That’s a loss of $2.4 billion. Coming in third is national television revenue, which generates $2.2 billion, all gone now. ESPN was careful to note that this is not just executive salaries and overpaid players not getting their millions. There are 278,932 people in America involved in coaching and scouting, as ESPN reported, making an average of $45,649 a year. Add another 371,607 fitness and aerobics instructors, who bring in an average salary of $44,956, equalling $17 billion in lost wages. Every NBA requires about 1,900 people to stage an NBA game, as ESPN reported. The league supports 52,450 workers, of which 80 percent “are ushers, security personnel, ticket takers and other service people working at arenas,” ESPN wrote.