The American Football Crisis
The American-Football Crisis
Vishakh Pillai, Tianah Lowery, and Meer Mehdi
The sports industry has lost over 5 billion dollars due to (COVID-19). This pandemic has caused players and fans to die out. American-Football is at stake right now. College Football is greatly impacted by the conditions of today. Players, teams, and states are hesitant to play this season. This not only impacts the profits that they make off of the game, it also impacts the team as a whole. Caleb Farley, a QB, does not want to play due to health concerns and other priorities. Players that take necessary precautions is a good way to stay safe, but it can affect the team’s overall performance.
This pandemic also affects the College Football players and their chance of getting a scholarship in football. According to ESPN, around 2% of students get a scholarship for college in football., 70% of Idaho’s college football team don't want to play due to the current conditions of Covid. 70% being over the majority of the team, Idaho itself is unlikely to compete or train for the season. "I know that this will get drastically worse as the season progresses and I know in my heart it's not the morally correct thing to do," says an unnamed player. He doesn't want to compete nor train because of Covid. As you can see, it is drastically affecting teams, as well as the players themselves.
Financially, they have lost a lot of money too. According to ESPN, leagues will lose 12 billion dollars in income which will greatly affect the sports industry. 1.3 million jobs have been lost due to the Coronavirus. However, when sports do return, the people who work in those jobs will not be paid as much because 371 million dollars in wages have been eliminated. Studies show that if College Football seasons are cancelled because of Covid-19, they will lose double of that money. The financial losses that are currently on College Football weigh at an estimated 4 billion dollars. This could severely affect the league, players, and fans because of how much money they will end up losing.
In recent discussions, the players and teams plan on skipping this season for the NFL draft. This could also be a new trend for teams to follow. Patrick Rishe, the director of the sports business program in Washington, estimates that “65 Power 5 schools would collectively lose more than $4 billion in football revenues, with at least $1.2 billion of that due to lost ticket revenue”. “Each school would roughly lose $62 million, including another $18.6 million” said Patrick. This big of a loss can and will affect upcoming games (that is if they are even going to play) that could even trigger a shutdown due to lost profits. If college-football is keeping it up, at this rate, they can eventually go out of business. Players not being able to play, teams not being able to play, and leagues not being able to play. The only way college-football can thrive, is to be able to play. That, unfortunately, is not going to happen any time soon. College football is at the brink of going out of business.
