Will We See a Return to Major Sporting Events in 2021? — Chirs Norminton
By: Chris Norminton
Tags: Football, Sports, Technology, Soccer, Chris Norminton

It is undoubtedly true that the sporting year of 2020 will go down as the most disrupted since the Second World War ended over 75 years ago. The Covid-19 Pandemic spread rapidly and led to most of the world’s sporting events being postponed or even cancelled.

The financial fall-out from this massive disruption is yet to be fully felt by the clubs and organizations that have been affected.

Better times ahead in 2021?

While the pandemic continues to disrupt many major countries around the world, there has been some return to sporting events, albeit without spectators.

2021 will provide if all goes well, an absolute plethora of sporting events, some of which were postponed from 2020. The Tokyo Olympic games have been rescheduled to take place one year later in 2021 and the Euro 2020 football championships are now expected to take place during June and July 2021.

This will all lead to a very congested sporting calendar for many professional sports and for the athletes who take part in different sports venues.

The Premier League football team Tottenham Hotspur, for example, had a lot of players drafted for playing international games leaving the team behind with a handful of players left to play as they would be gone most time due to the players self-isolating.

The financial impact of Covid-19

Even the largest events in the world, such as the Tokyo Olympic Games, have suffered financially due to postponements.

As we all should know, there are a lot of people in Japan within close proximity. Tokyo is a tourist hotspot but due to travel restrictions, a lot of money had been lost as trips had to be cancelled.

The cost is predicted to run into billions of dollars in extra expenses for the Japanese organizers who will also have to adapt to ‘Social Distancing’ of the spectators within the stadiums when the events do take place.

The reduction in the number of people being able to attend each event will result in a reduced income from the events which will also be combined with extra costs in providing staff and equipment to oversee that the crowds are able to enjoy the events in a safe environment.

A major positive that may have some impact upon the success, or otherwise, of the sporting season of 2021 will be the efficacy of the various vaccines which are now just being introduced for public use.

If these vaccines are shown to provide sufficient protection, which is believed to do so, we may finally have what the scientists call ‘herd immunity.’ What this means is that people will be immune to the virus and will no longer spread it meaning that sporting events may be able to resume like before and increase the numbers of spectators they can admit.

This would provide a huge advantage, even a life-saver, to some sporting organizations who depend upon their weekly attendances to pay-their-way.

The ‘new normal’ for 2021 and beyond

Companies and individuals who specialize in providing financial solutions for sporting clubs, such as Chris Norminton, will be in much demand once the sporting calendar starts to re-establish itself in what has been described as “the new normal”.

Many sporting clubs have already started to use cashless systems for entry to stadiums and for purchasing food and beverages within and around the venues. As it is considered that banknotes and coins may be able to carry the Covid-19 virus on their surfaces, there will be a major change in direction towards cash-free systems within sporting and concert venues in the next few years.

The future looks bright for sport in 2021 if the vaccines prove to be efficient in controlling the pandemic, especially with a new strand of the virus on the rise. However, many potential spectators and the events they attend will have to adapt to this ‘new normal’ which may not be detrimental to sport if a cashless society becomes an accepted part of it.