COVID-19: a high level review of the impact on sports events, teams and ticketholders

The coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak that began in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and spread at a rapid pace, has now infected hundreds of thousands of people and claimed thousands of lives. It has spread throughout the globe and continues to grow in countries outside of China at a startling rate. On 30 January 2020, the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a public health emergency.

Although the outbreak was previously concentrated in China and surrounding Asian countries, there has been a significant spike in cases in Europe linked to an outbreak in Northern Italy and the number of cases reported outside of China quickly exceeded those from within. Growing concern over the spread of Covid-19 in Europe (which quickly became the epicentre of the outbreak in March 2020) led the UK Government to enforce tight restrictions on the nation’s activity: preventing citizens from leaving their homes and, amongst other things, preventing sporting events from being held.  This article examines the early effects of Covid-19 on the sports industry, looking specifically at:

• The impact on events
• The impact on sports contracts
• The impact on ticketholders
• The impact on sports teams and sporting venues