As I am sure all of you have heard, Coronavirus also known as Covid-19 has put quite the damper on our everyday lives forcing public gathering places, schools and businesses to shut down. In answer to these current times, sports leagues such as the NBA and NHL have shut down as a precautionary measure to minimize the spread of sickness. Additionally, other leagues have followed this lead and everything seems to be put on hold for an undisclosed amount of time.
While shutting down sports and public gatherings seems an obvious precaution to take for community health reasons, there are also some serious consequences in regards to economics and loss of employment. People might not realize it but professional and amateur sports employ a lot more than just athletes, they employ coaching staff, event staff, trainers, doctors, advertisers, janitors, tradespeople, journalists, and all sorts of professions who help the sport world go around. So while our sports are shut down that means a lot of people who work in relation to the entertainment/sport industry are suffering from the consequences of Covid-19, along with plenty of others.
There are rumours that some of the professional sports leagues will be losing revenues of hundreds of millions to billions of dollars from Covid-19, and though finances are not our number one concern right now, they soon will be when we are all left with the consequences of a crashed economy.
The government has stepped in to assist people but this is simply just a band-aid for what Covid-19 is going to do to small businesses. Large entities and entertainment groups have already vowed to keep their staff afloat in these unexpected times while others have not been as fortunate. Most NHL teams have provided some type of relief for hourly and part-time workers, and it's good to see some initiative beyond government. Ultimately there are many variables in these times and we will not know the full extent of the consequences until Covid-19 passes.