Opportunities still exist for sports despite COVID

Sports marketing expert Carole Beckford believes that with the COVID-19 pandemic threatening the growth of the global sports industry, local broadcasting outlets and online media platforms will have an opportunity to distribute more sporting content to a wider audience.

Business entity PricewaterhouseCoopers outlined in a recent research that the growth of the global sports industry will decline by half within the next three to five years because of the effects of the pandemic.

Beckford told The Gleaner that local online and traditional media companies should capitalise on this and stream more sporting events to a larger number of viewers and listeners.

“I see an opportunity for innovative media positioning of certain events, so things like cricket and other team sports that we see are successfully operating in the bubble concept, we can find ways to broadcast those things. Normally, when you have events that people have to go to the stadium to see, it’s just the hard-core fans that go. If it’s on television or an online platform, it’s an opportunity for more eyes and ears to witness sports,” Beckford said.

“The sporting bodies, generally, would have to organise their athletes, and how they prepare for training, physically and technically, for international competition. The protocols with regard to COVID-19 will have to be observed, but that’s on the preparation for the technical side.

“Overall, over the next five years, I just think that the sporting bodies and their administrators will have to be more innovative. We’re going to be worried because, as Jamaicans, we are traditional. We are used to having football everywhere, but we will now have to exhibit more discipline with how we organise. One of the things for international reports, though, is that sporting goods look like they will increase; because you have to stay at home, and cannot go to venues as much, fans will probably spend the extra money to buy a jersey, national shirts, and so on.”

She said that the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Sport, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness should utilise the services of G.C. Foster College of Physical Education and Sports to combine programmes to keep Jamaicans active during this time.

G.C. Foster College’s principal, Maurice Wilson, said that the institution has perfected a formula in engaging persons in a sporting environment that will allow them to operate safely.

“I think that G.C. Foster College should be the vehicle for any transformation through sports and business. The institution would have started from very early by hosting a webinar on current and modified teaching and learning practices for physical education and sports. This webinar was done almost a month ago, and I believe we were the first institution that had 15 students in a bubble and experimented on how we could keep them safe,” Wilson said.

“I believe that the sporting organisations should try to have some dialogue with the institution on how a number of these sporting activities can be conducted in a very safe manner. For some reason, the expertise of the institution has never been fully utilised. Some of the practitioners at the institution are some of the most qualified and experienced in the Caribbean and what we have done, we have continued to do our research to prepare all stakeholders to be able to function in a very safe and effective way during the course of this pandemic,” Wilson noted.

Athena Clarke