Something to Think About

KRAM1 · April 14, 2020

So, I have been thinking about this in general terms...will this "shelter in place thing start to break people's daily habits a bit and will that translate to sports...both pro and college? What I am getting at is that people tend to be "creatures of habit" in their daily lives and in their likes and dislikes. With this "shelter in place" going on for an extended period resulting in bars, restaurants, offices, malls, etc. being closed, will people change their habits or drop existing ones coming out of this thing? Habits are reinforced by "doing them" on a regular basis. When that reinforcer is missing or broken for an extended period old habits can be dropped and new ones created. Think about the people who for years have gone to the same sports bar to watch baseball, football, golf, basketball, etc. on a regular basis. They can't do that now. Morning "coffee clubs" where people gather like clockwork every morning to enjoy a coffee and fellowship...they can't do that now. And, the list goes on and on...for me it is playing golf on a somewhat regular basis...will I slack off that after things start back up, will my wife and I continue our Friday afternoon "happy hours" at local watering holes, will we go out to eat every Friday and Saturday evenings? If we do, will we return to the "old regulars" or will that habit have been broken since our regular wait staff has moved on to other options after being laid off? All questions to be answered.

Now to sports. Will people renew their season tickets at the same rate as in the past not knowing if there will be a season or not? And, after being laid-off will those folks prioritize revenue and expenses differently and not see "sports" in the same light as before? Without Spring Training to keep the juices flowing in the off-season for college ball and the off-season training and workout pro stories and with a "muted" NFL draft will some folks' interest fade? Did the cancellation of conference tournaments and the NCAA tourney cause a "break" in some people's college basketball habit? What about the golfers and the cancellation of the PGA Tour? The examples can go on and on about the "breaks" in people's normal habits due to the "shelter in place" situation.

Bottom line, do we see a decline in attendance at both the college and the professional level? And, if we do, and colleges suffer the resulting decline in "donation" and ticket and merchandise and concession revenues, just what will that mean going forward? And, with pro sports where very few people have the "connection" they might have to "their college" to hang in there a bit longer, will season ticket holders abandon their tickets because they just realized it was now very expensive to keep them and that their interest has waned a bit after "no sports" for awhile? Will other interests take the place of going to games in person?

It will be interesting to see how this pandemic changes (or will it?) people's habits and what that might mean for both college and pro sports. I have no answers, but I do have lots of questions. What do you think? Business as usual or will the landscape be permanently altered?

DeepGreen · April 14, 2020

Yes and no.

ColoradoEagle · April 16, 2020

Most activities/events will be on some sort of pause or very slow ramp up until there's a vaccine. College sports will suffer more than pro sports, because there are way more regulations and schools have been spending money as fast (or faster) than they earn it for a while now.

No way to tell if interest wanes. I wouldn't think so, but at the same time, MLB never fully recovered from the strike in the 90s.