Column: When sports returns, a chance to move past greed

Golfers on the European Tour received news this week that didn’t exactly paint a rosy picture of what things might look like when the coronavirus crisis subsides and play resumes.

There will almost surely be less money to play for, which by itself was bad enough. Euro Tour CEO Keith Pelley told players he expects reductions in purses because sponsorships and television money will be down.

But no espresso in the player’s lounge? No free courtesy cars to get around?

Possibly no fans, either, but that increasingly looks like the reality for most sports, at least for the remainder of this year.

A different era in sports is coming, thanks to the ravages of the new coronavirus. And it’s not only golfers who will be feeling the fallout for some time to come.

Around the world, sports officials are scrambling to figure out a future that is suddenly uncertain. And just what that future might be is now beginning to come into a little focus.

In golf it likely means fewer tournaments, fewer perks and, yes, less money. While the PGA Tour has yet to weigh in, Pelley made it clear what the sport is facing in the places it plays around the world.

“The reality is, the pandemic is going to have a profound impact on the tour financially, as well as many of our partners, both in sponsorship and broadcast areas,” Pelley said.

There will be changes in other sports, too. Money that has fueled exorbitant profits — and exorbitant salaries — for most of the current century won’t be as easy to find as businesses and entire industries try to recover from the economic shock of the coronavirus shutdown.

The old guarantees are simply not there anymore. The financial model for sports may not be broken, but it’s certainly going to suffer from a million cracks.

That’s a big reason...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-When-sports-returns-a-chance-to-move-15202838.php