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The University of Bayreuth issued the following news release:
The consequences of the lockdown for large and small sport clubs, for companies and freelancers in the event business will be serious. "Only when something is going on, will money be earned", says Prof. Dr. Markus Kurscheidt, Chair of Sport Science II - Sport Governance and Event Management at the University of Bayreuth. He sees big problems ahead for amateur competitive sports: He fears that many regional clubs will not survive the crisis. Moreover, according to Kurscheidt, the recovery after the end of the initial restrictions will not be enough for the event industry: "To compensate for the losses, we would have to declare Wednesday a day off until the end of the year."
Will small clubs be able to survive?
The effects of the coronavirus crisis on amateur and leisure sports are difficult to assess at this stage. Some village and suburb clubs will be confronted with insolvable financial situations. Many smaller sponsors will withdraw due to their own economic problems. In the higher amateur divisions, it will no longer be possible to pay recompenses to players. In some cases, match operations could be jeopardised because the clubs will no longer be able to cover travel expenses to away games. A massive consolidation in the many divisions of amateur competitive sports cannot be ruled out. However, the regional sports associations and cities have various instruments to cushion hardship cases in this situation. Nevertheless, I fear that a significant number of clubs will not survive the crisis. One focus should be to save successful youth teams from closure. After all, this is an area where amateur sport clubs do outstanding social work.
How high do you estimate the losses in the sports and event business to be due to the coronavirus crisis?
Everything depends on how long we have to hold out in the lockdown of almost all social and economic activities for medical reasons. The experience in China, where the pandemic began, provides a clue. Then we have to assume a widespread standstill of at least two months. For the German sports industry, worth more than 70 billion euros, the losses should then roughly amount to 15 billion euros or 20%. Unfortunately, there are no...