Research Paper on COVID-19: A Global Disaster Impacting Lives Everywhere

Introduction

COVID-19 is a viral disease, and a normal person may become infected when he/she comes into contact with the fluid of an infected person. Corona Virus Diseases is termed as a pandemic because of its impacts not only on one country but the entire globe. Many concerns have been raised up by different groups of people on the issue of COVID-19, some viewing it as a worldwide disaster because it has impacted their lives as seen in various fields. Examples of fields that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic include the economy, employment, transport, health, and sports. In terms of economy, the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic has slow down the economy of a given nation since most of the businesses have been shut down as a way of preventing further spread of the disease. When it comes to employment, many people have been forced by unavoidable circumstances to remained at their respective homes, leaving them jobless. Some essential means of transport, for instance, air transport, have also ceased as a way of preventing the spread of the disease, thus leading to a decline in the income that was initially generating as a result of transportation of goods and services from one country to another. The health sector has also received a greater impact due to much expenditure on the accommodations of facilities for the infected person. Also, doctors risk their while offering treatment to the COVID-19 victims, especially when there are shortages of COVID-19 protective clothes. The sector of sports has also been affected by COVID-19, such that some games that were ongoing had to be postponed to prevent the spread of the disease from one individual to another. United States is one of the countries whose sports economy has been totally undermined by the pandemic because it has reported a higher number of COVID-19 cases globally. The paper will, therefore, discuss the impacts of COVID-19's pandemic on the economics of sports.

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There are several ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the economics of sports. Firstly, the emergency of COVID-19 has slowed down the economy of sports because the majority of the sports have been postponed, for instance, The Tokyo 2020 Olympics that was supposed to be held in Japan. As a result, the disease has negatively affected the economic sports of Japan since sports staffs had used much money during the preparation process as they were supposed to host other counties. When it comes to soccer leagues, most of the fixed matches have been postponed for examples Italy series A because the country is currently under lockdown and more so there are many individuals who are infected with the COVID-19 pandemic thereby hindering them from engaging in any sports activity thus lowering the economy of sports ( Fernandes, 2020).

Some sports have been canceled without a proper discussion on if the registration money was to be refunded to each country. Instead, the registration money that was contributed by each has been postponed because there no open forum where different countries can discuss this problem. The existence of an unclear forum for discussion of sports refund money is because the majority of the nations have denied access to their counties as a way of controlling the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, some sports clubs, for instance, Tottenham Hotspur has been forced to seek help from other sports organizations to get the money that can be used to pay their players because the money that they are currently having is insufficient as compared to the number of players. The economics of sports has also been slowed down by the spread of the pandemic because most of the sports have started shifting to online games. Therefore, the fewer number of people following up online games has led to less generation of money by the sports clubs.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is also inferring with the sports economy, as seen on how sports leagues are currently handled. Statistics show that the pandemic has affected how the leagues were initially conducted because, currently, fewer people are allowed to enter the field to avoid overcrowding that could otherwise lead to the spread of the disease. As a result of a few representations of the people, there will be less income by the sports authority due to fewer income on the entry fee by the spectators. Also, the sports economy had slowed down because much money is required during the training of different players at their various places, unlike before the emergence of a pandemic where players received their training in one place, thus saving on cost.

Sports clubs have also been forced by the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic to spend more money on the treatment of their players. As a result, money that was initially set aside to be used in the improvement of sports activities had to be used. Sports staff and players have also taken strict measures, for instance, wearing masks and gloves to avoid coming into contact with the disease.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has also undermined the task of the free agency such that some may not be able to pay their players due to less income from sporting activities. Traders are currently working by the use of online means by providing a website where people can order their goods and get it after a given period. This way of purchasing goods may sometimes be considered as disadvantageous in some ways. For instance, those who are in charge of providing online marketing services normally interfered with the existence of brokers who tend to create websites that relate to their products, therefore, misleading people as some may end up losing their money while trying to purchase certain goods. Some players are still paid even after the emergency of COVID-19 pandemic, while others have ended up unpaid due to an inadequate amount of money that is held by their respective companies.

After the emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic, the prices of tickets have become higher because people are spaced such that if there is a person who is infected with the pandemic, he/she cannot easily spread to others. Also, traveling rickets has risen because means used for traveling have been restricted by the bodies in charge of their organizations to carry fewer passengers without considering the price of fuels (Ivanov et al. 2020). In my view, I think it is difficult to reschedule the entire seasons in sports because of time and money. On the issue of time, rescheduling requires much time; therefore, other activities in a given country will be undermined. Also, much money would be spent during the act of rescheduling that could have otherwise be used in sports-related activities. The impact of rescheduling is a decline in sports funds, therefore, leading to the inability to run its programs.

Companies that own certain broadcast has received a negative impact after COVID-19 emerged as this broadcast has to take a serious followed up in order to get their money refunded. The reason for the delay in refund is because there is rare consideration of time as for now, the main focus for almost the entire globe is ways of reducing the spread of the disease from one region to another. Companies that own broadcast sports have experienced the problem of inadequate funds (Ozili, & Arun, 2020). The net pay of some players has declined because they have voluntarily come out to demonstrate charity on the victims of COVID-19. Lionel Messi, as one of the world best players of all the time, has demonstrated a great sense of charity by accepting a pay cut of 70% so that the rest of his salary should be used to continue with the activities related to COVID-19 prevention. Some players have maintained their net pay salaries because the ideas of pay cut depend on an individual decision.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of impacts on sports economics, as discussed in the paper. Sports have been postponed, and others canceled thus less income generation. Also, the pandemic has led to the rise in traveling tickets because the majority of means transports accommodate fewer passengers as compared to the prices of fuels. COVID-19 pandemic has also costed the sport's economics by making them incur more costs on purchasing protective clothes as a way of avoiding coming into contact with the disease. Some clubs have also been forced to seek help from other sports departments due to a shortage of funds to pay their players. Also, COVID-19 has led to the loss of the huge sum of money by the host country. For instance, the Olympics that were supposed to be held in Japan were postponed, thereby leaving them with less amount of money because much money was used during the preparation process.

References

Fernandes, N. (2020). Economic effects of coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) on the world economy. Available at SSRN 3557504.

Ivanov, S., Webster, C., Stoilova, E., & Slobodskoy, D. (2020). Biosecurity, automation technologies, and economic resilience of travel, tourism, and hospitality companies.

Ozili, P. K., & Arun, T. (2020). Spillover of COVID-19: Impact on the Global Economy. Available at SSRN 3562570.