The conundrum of COVID-19 and the sports industry: when saving lives is more important than entertainment
The advent of COVID-19 has thrown the world of sports into disarray. Far and wide, numerous sports codes, leagues, and federations suspended their activities. They had their operational models adapted as a safety precaution to ensure that minimal human life is lost. Social distancing, one of the critical measures in combating COVID-19, is not always practical for both spectators and participants in sports events. In this chapter, I interrogate the impact of COVID-19 on the sports industry. I argue that COVID-19 has exposed the long-standing neoliberal operational model that has been followed by the world of sports as being flawed and in need of a massive change. I argue that, perhaps, COVID-19 was the necessary chaos that the sports industry needed to usher in a `new paradigm.` The sports industry ought to keep up with new trends, adapt and embrace new strategies and technologies to continue to offer sporting activities when `live` game participation and attendance are not an option amid large scale pandemics such as COVID-19. I recommend that the lessons learned from challenges imposed by COVID-19 should transform sports into new frontiers never imagined before, in which saving lives are more important than entertainment.
© Copyright 2020 From High-risk Sports to Sports as High Risk: Crisis, Captulation and Creativity during COVID-19. Julkaistu Tekijä CSSALL Publishers Ltd.. Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Aiheet: | taloudellisuus teknologia harjoittelu kilpailu virus tartunta politiikka tila ennaltaehkäisy terveys johto, hallinta |
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Aihealueet: | urheiluhistoria ja urheilupolitiikka urheilun johto ja organisaatio |
Tagging: | Coronavirus Pandemie virtuell Sport Echtzeit |
Julkaisussa: | From High-risk Sports to Sports as High Risk: Crisis, Captulation and Creativity during COVID-19 |
Toimittajat: | S. Manik |
Julkaistu: |
Pietermaritzburg
CSSALL Publishers Ltd.
2020
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Sarja: |
Alternation African Scholarship Book Series, 5 |
Sivuja: | 35-68 |
Julkaisutyypit: | kirja |
Kieli: | englanti (kieli) |
Taso: | kehittynyt |