AndyyCovid-19 Is Coming Home

3-16-2020 - Andy


Andy Dolich -- 2015


Sports Isn't Immune

By Andy Dolich


  The Olympic Games have been cancelled three times, in 1916, 1940 and 1944 during catastrophic World Wars. The 2020 Olympic games in Japan are slated to light the cauldron in Tokyo, the world's most populous city of 37 million people, on July 24. Can you imagine the conversations which are going on between the Japanese government, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) countries around the world and the thousands of aspiring Olympians on how to deal with the real-time events which are playing out across the globe?
 
The NBA, NHL and MLS have put their seasons on hold. March Madness has turned to sadness with its cancellation. MLB is pushing it's season opener back from March 26th after cancelling Spring Training. No Masters golf, Indy 500, XFL or EPL.
 
On January 30 the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. On March 12 the WHO declared Covid-19 a Global Pandemic. Events are unfolding more quickly than our ability to separate perception from the reality of our daily lives.
 
At its core, sports is a community celebration bringing millions of people together to see the greatest athletes on the planet show their skills in venues of all sizes. These gatherings are not immune from natural disasters, terrorism, national tragedy, war, infrastructure breakdowns and the current threat of contagion.
 
The current Covid-19 Pandemic is taking sports away from us for an extended period of time. The tidal wave of sports cancellations and postponements stopped us in our tracks and forced a national re-examination of public places as safe havens. Sports has been cited as a healing agent for our fears, emotional pain, loss of lives, angst and community trauma. Games often seem to be an acceptable security blanket when we don't know where to turn for solace as a larger community. Now those games are gone.
 
Sports is now a central theme of how we will live our lives in the days, weeks and months to come.
 
What's Next?
If you can find someone who knows exactly what will happen next, please have them phone home.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is a decisive decision maker. He became the latest leader to express frustration over the inconsistent and varied information from the health community and how that eventually changed the league's approach. He told the media that NBA team owners did not focus on financial implications or make postponement a business decision. He said in board meetings last Wednesday and Thursday that, "Not one team raised money. The entire discussion was about the safety and health of the players, the community around the NBA and our fans." He was clearly a person searching for an answer and he wasn't afraid to say what he didn't know.

We will see that while sports is a business, the heart and soul of its appeal is teamwork and leadership. The positive move by the Warriors to create a million dollar fund for those who work in hosting their games at Chase Center will hopefully be replicated across the country.

We are currently deprived of our games and the commerce they provide but all of us in the sports world should do everything in our power to navigate a positive course of teamwork in these uncharted waters.
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Andy Dolich has over five decades of leadership in the sports industry, including executive positions in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, pro soccer and lacrosse. Presently Dolich is COO of the Fan Controlled Football League (FCFL) and teaches sports business at Stanford's School of Continuing Studies. Dolich is also co-author of the new book: